Liver Function Panel (ALT, AST, ALP, GGT, Bilirubin)
Liver enzymes and bilirubin, screening for hepatocellular injury through ALT and AST and for cholestasis through ALP, GGT and bilirubin. The main quarry now is metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD, formerly NAFLD), the most common liver disease in developed countries and firmly linked to cardiometabolic risk — alongside alcohol-related and other liver disease.
Elevated ALT is an established, if imperfect, screening flag for MASLD, which predicts progression to fibrosis and cirrhosis and correlates with cardiovascular risk. Professional guidance supports opportunistic case-finding in at-risk groups — obesity, diabetes, metabolic syndrome — rather than framing this as a universal population screen with its own independent evidence base.