Dear Eric,

I was tested HIV positive for 5 years now. I recently changed my med to Atripla from Kaletra/ & Combivir because of convenient. The change to Atripla was only about 6 months ago. During this period, I noticed that lab results for my liver tests were AST (SGDT) 45 and ALT (SGPT) was 91. The test has been about the same for the past 6 months at 3 months intervals. My doctor said that the slight abnormality is fine as long as I am not feeling tired or sick. How true is this? Should I be worried? My T cells is 628 (CD4) and viral load is undetectable. Should I be concern about the liver results even though the T cells and viral load results are good? Please give me your honest opinion. Thank you.

Thank you for your post.

In general I agree with your provider that this modest increase in ALT would not be enough for me to stop treatment. Nevertheless, it would make me at least consider other causes such as hepatitis C or B virus, other toxins such as other drugs you may be taking or alcohol. These other causes should be considered and an evaluation performed to assure that these are not the underlying cause of your problem. Short of something else coming up, such as you developing new symptoms or further increases in your liver enzymes I would probably sit tight with continued follow-up.

Best, Eric