Serum lactate dehydrogenase glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase ratio and liver metastases

The findings indicate that the SLDH/SGOT ratio is a valuable indicator of the presence or absence of liver metastases. In the group of 106 patients with malignant tumours an SLDH/SGOT ratio greater than 1.5 was found in 29 of the 34 patients with liver metastases. Of the five patients with a lower ratio three had breast tumours and two had pancreatic tumours. The relatively high SGOT levels and, hence, low SLDH/SGOT ratios in the last two patients could have been due to secondary biliary cirrhosis resulting from biliary obstruction. Only 1 of the 72 patients without liver metastases had an elevated SLDH/SGOT ratio. The overall diagnostic value was greater for this ratio than for the results of the six liver enzyme assays studied separately, and the difference was even larger when the ratio was used to distinguish patients with liver metastases from those with other types of liver disease in which the SLDH level is increased.