LDH

Lactate dehydrogenase blood test is useful to measure the lactic acid dehydrogenase in your body. During any illness or injury, the cells get damaged and release lactate dehydrogenase into the bloodstream. Thus if the lactate dehydrogenase levels are increased it may indicate tissue damage. This test helps in diagnosing acute or chronic cell damage.

What is Lactate dehydrogenase?

Lactate dehydrogenase enzyme is essential for converting sugar into energy for your cells. Lactate dehydrogenase is present in many organs and tissues throughout the body like liver, pancreas, heart, blood cells, kidneys, skeletal muscles, lymph tissue, etc. There are five different isoenzymes of lactate dehydrogenase, they are LDH-1, LDH-2, LDH-3, LDH-4, and LDH-5. LDH-1 is found mostly in heart and red blood cells, LDH-2 is found in heart and red blood cells, LDH-3 is found in lungs, lymph tissue, pancreas, platelets, LDH-4 is found mostly in the liver and skeletal muscle and LDH-5 is also found in liver and skeletal muscle.

This test may be recommended to you if you had a heart attack, low red blood cell count, blood cancer, lymph cancer or may have a damaged tissue. This test is also recommended if you are on therapy and to check if the medicines are working efficiently.

Precautions:

Some medicines may affect your lactate dehydrogenase blood test results such as aspirin, narcotic drugs like opium, morphine, methadone, etc, anesthetics may raise your test results. Certain conditions like break down of red blood cells or if the sample is contaminated your tests results will be higher. Autoimmune diseases like lupus erythematosus and advanced cancers may elevate the levels of lactate dehydrogenase. Medicines rich in ascorbic acid may decrease the test results. Alcohol also affects lactate dehydrogenase blood test results.

Pathology test parameters:

• LDH-1
• LDH-2
• LDH-3
• LDH-4
• LDH-5

The normal test results may vary depending on the gender, age, health history, your condition, etc.

If your lactate dehydrogenase test results are higher than the normal range it may indicate organ or tissue damage. If your overall isoenzymes are higher than the normal it may indicate damage of the heart, liver, lungs, and kidney. High levels of lactate dehydrogenase may indicate many conditions because it is present in many types of cells. Most of the conditions which it may indicate are cerebrovascular accident (stroke), hemolytic anemia, pancreatitis, heart attack, hepatitis, muscle injury or muscular dystrophy (muscle weakness or muscular dystrophy), death of the tissue, septic shock, infections, blood flow deficiency, low blood pressure, leukemia (blood cancer), lymphoma (lymph cancer), etc

If you get abnormal test results, consult your doctor immediately. Your doctor may recommend other tests depending on your results.