Aspartate Aminotransferase
(AST)

Sample type:

Plasma EDTA or Serum

Uses:

You’ve been exposed to the hepatitis virus.
You drink a lot of alcohol.
You take medicine that’s known to damage the liver.
You have a family history of liver disease.
You have obesity.
You have diabetes or metabolic syndrome.
You’ve had nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

Precaution:

Avoid hemolysis.
After collection, gently invert tube 8-10 times.
Specimen should be processed within 2 hours – See Processing Instructions.
Specimen Type (Serum) Temperature (Frozen or Refrigerated preferred) Time (7 days).

Interference:

Causes of low AST.

uremia, vitamin B6 deficiency, metronidazole, trifluoperazine.
Levels are falsely decreased in patients with pyridoxine deficiency (beriberi, pregnancy), severe long-standing liver disease, uremia, or diabetic ketoacidosis Causes of high AST.
Chronic alcohol ingestion, not limited to overt chronic alcoholism; cirrhosis. In alcoholic hepatitis.
Pregnancy may cause decreased AST levels.
Exercise may cause increased levels.
Drugs that may cause increased levels include: antihypertensive, cholinergic agents, Coumarin-type anticoagulants, digitalis preparations, erythromycin, hepatotoxic medications, isoniazid, methyldopa, oral contraceptives, opiates, salicylates stains, and verapamil.

Pre-analytical errors:

Gross hemolysis; improper labeling.

The corrective action:

The sample should be rejected and another sample requested.

Post analytical errors:

If the patient’s gender is written wrong in the report, the reference range was written incorrectly.

The corrective action:

If the report is not delivered to the patient and this error is discovered, fix it, but if the report is delivered to the patient, apologize to him, tell him that an error has occurred, and replace it with the correct report. And next time, be careful when you write down the gender and reference range.

Reference Range:

Female

0 up to 15 days: 0 to 155 IU/L

15 days up to 1 year: 0 to 63 IU/L

1 year up to 7 years: 0 to 41 IU/L

7 years up to 12 years: 0 to 33 IU/L

12 years up to 19 years: 0 to 23 IU/L

19 years and older: 0 to 35 IU/L

Male

0 up to 15 days: 0 to 155 IU/L

15 days up to 1 year: 0 to 63 IU/L

1 year up to 7 years: 0 to 41 IU/L

7 years up to 12 years: 0 to 33 IU/L

12 years up to 19 years: 0 to 32 IU/L

19 years and older: 0 to 50 IU/L