Ethanol at high levels can interfere with certain laboratory tests.
Tests showing a falsely low activity:
(1) serum ALT
(2) serum LDH
Ethanol may compete with lactate which is used as a substrate for the ALT and LDH assay in a dose-dependent factor.
Tests showing an increase in the coefficient of variation which affects the reliability of the results:
(1) serum urea
(2) serum direct bilirubin
Differential diagnosis:
(1) chronic effects of ethanol misuse
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Specialty: Clinical Laboratory
