What are ALT, AST and CK?
ALT: This substance, which stands for alanine aminotransferase, is a catalyst in the alanine cycle in your body. Its task is to move an amino group in the amino acid alanine to alpha ketoglutarate. Although it is generally found in liver tissue, it is also found in small amounts in several different tissues in the body.
AST: This substance, which stands for aspartate aminotransferase, is a catalyst that takes part in the aspartate cycle in your body. Its job is to speed up the transformation of aspartate in your body into several different building blocks. Like ALT, AST is generally found in liver tissue, but also in small amounts in several different tissues.
As you can see, although ALT and AST are not specific to a single tissue, most of them are found in the liver. For this reason, we often associate increases in ALT and AST values with liver damage.
CK: This enzyme, which stands for creatine kinase, mediates the conversion of creatine to phosphocreatine in your body. This enzyme, which plays an important role in energy consumption and metabolic processes, has many different special states according to the tissues in which it is found. The most important of the special forms is CK-MB, which is found more in the heart muscle than other forms. In the diagnosis of cardiac problems, CK-MB levels together with troponin are a unit we frequently examine.
ALT, AST and CK levels may increase in athletes due to exercise and this height may be misinterpreted. Like many subjects of athletes, laboratory results should also be evaluated differently.
ALT, AST and CK height in athletes
ALT and AST values are a parameter that really needs attention. Because most of the time, it increases with liver-related problems. But this situation can actually be misleading about athletes.
Can ALT, AST and CK elevations be experienced solely due to sports for no reason? Research shows that the answer is yes.
A group of men participated in the exercise to observe ALT, AST, CK values. Participants whose the values are in the reference range before the study, who do not have any disease and who do not use drugs during the study are evaluated.
The results show that ALT, AST and CK values increased 3-fold on average compared to the baseline level, and then slowly declined for seven days to normal.
As a result, an increase in ALT, AST and CK values of individuals in moderate and high intensity exercises is an expected and not abnormal situation.
