An Unusual Cause of Elevated Values on Liver Function Tests in a Liver Transplant PatientAnkur Jain, MD; Amandeep Sahota, MD; Najeeb S Alshak, MD; Jim K Tung, MD Spring 2009 - Volume 13 Number 2 https://doi.org/10.7812/TPP/08-056IntroductionBiliary obstruction and rejection are two of the most common causes of abnormal findings on liver function tests (LFTs) in patients who have already undergone liver transplantation. Here we present a post-transplant patient with jaundice. Tests showed that he had no hepatitis B surface antigen before transplantation; he received a core antibody-negative liver. He was not previously vaccinated against hepatitis B, however, and acute hepatitis B was found to be the cause of his increased values on LFTs. His case demonstrates the need to keep a broad differential during laboratory workup of such patients and to vaccinate those patients at risk for acquiring hepatitis B or developing complications.
|
ETOC
Click here to join the eTOC list or text ETOC to 22828. You will receive an email notice with the Table of Contents of The Permanente Journal.
CIRCULATION
2 million page views of TPJ articles in PubMed from a broad international readership.
Indexing
Indexed in MEDLINE, PubMed Central, EMBASE, EBSCO Academic Search Complete, CrossRef, and SciVerse/Scopus.