Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Tests and diagnosis
By Mayo Clinic staffBecause there are numerous liver diseases and a wide range of factors that can cause them, including viral infections, drugs and environmental toxins, diagnosing alcoholic hepatitis can be challenging. In addition to a full medical history, including questions about your drinking habits and a physical exam, you're likely to have certain tests, including:
- Blood tests. These check for high levels of certain liver-related enzymes: gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALAT). Elevated levels of these enzymes are likely to occur in people with alcoholic hepatitis. You may also have tests to check for viral infections that affect the liver, such as hepatitis B and C.
- Ultrasound. Your doctor may use this noninvasive imaging test to view your liver — in people with alcoholic hepatitis, the liver may be enlarged — and to rule out other problems such as gallstones or bile duct obstruction.
- Liver biopsy. In this procedure, a small sample of tissue is removed from your liver and examined under a microscope. Your doctor is likely to use a thin cutting needle to obtain the sample. Needle biopsies are relatively simple procedures requiring only local anesthesia, but your doctor may choose not to do one if you have bleeding problems or severe abdominal swelling (ascites). Risks include bruising, bleeding and infection.
