← Chapter 12
Medical-Surgical Nursing · Chapter 12

Liver Panel Decoder: Damage or Function

A liver panel is really two panels: enzymes that measure damage and albumin, INR and bilirubin that measure function. Type a set of results in and the decoder names the pattern — hepatocellular or cholestatic — tells you whether synthesis is failing, and states what the nurse does about it. Then switch to the jaundice localiser and find out why dark urine with pale stool can only mean one thing.
Load a patient
Enter the results
Normal 7–56
Normal 10–40
Normal 30–120
Normal 8–60
mg/dL · normal 0.3–1.2
mg/dL · normal 0.1–0.3
Normal 3.5–5.0
Normal 0.8–1.1
×1000/mm³ · 150–400
The split that makes this readable
Damage: ALT and AST leak from injured hepatocytes; ALP and GGT rise when bile cannot flow. Function: albumin reflects synthesis over weeks, INR over hours to days, bilirubin reflects excretion. Enzymes can fall simply because there are fewer cells left to leak.