The effects of exercise on liver function in patients with chronic liver disease

Abstract

This study examined the effect of exercise on liver function in patients with chronic liver disease (CLD). 1) Twenty-five patients with CLD (21 with chronic hepatitis (CH) and 4 with liver cirrhosis (LC] and 10 healthy subjects were administered an exercise test employing a treadmill. The load applied was 6.5 Mets and was administered for a period of 10 min. The serum levels of S-GOT, S-GPT, LDH, CPK, triglyceride, GOTm and GLDH were measured before exercise and 1 h, 24 h and 7 days after exercise in the patients with CLD, and before and 24 h after exercise in the healthy subjects. i. The patients with CLD showed an increase in GLDH 24 h after exercise (p less than 0.005), a decline in LDH 1 h (p less than 0.05) and 24 h (p less than 0.01) after exercise, and a decrease in triglyceride 24 h after exercise (p less than 0.005) as compared with pre-exercise values. No significant changes were observed in S-GOT, S-GPT, CPK or GOTm levels. ii. The mean values and standard deviations (SD) of S-GOT and S-GPT during the 3-month period immediately preceding the study were calculated for all 25 patients. Increases in S-GOT of more than 1 SD were observed after exercise in 5 patients (20%); another 5 patients (20%) showed similar increases in S-GPT. The number of overlapping cases in which increases in both S-GOT and S-GPT were observed was 2 (8%). iii. No significant differences were found in mean HR during exercise/predicted max HR, or mean BP during exercise between patients with increased S-GOT and those without, or between patients with increased S-GPT and those without. iv. In the healthy subjects, there was a significant increase in GOTm (p less than 0.05) following exercise, but no such increase in S-GOT, S-GPT, CPK or GLDH. 2) The number of steps taken per day measured by a pedometer was selected as a parameter of daily exercise and examined in 14 patients with CLD (9 with CH and 5 with LC). No significant correlation was found between mean number of walking steps and S-GOT and S-GPT levels for patients with either type of CLD. The results of this study indicate that moderate exercise was well tolerated in the majority of patients with CLD.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)