Aspartate aminotransferase (AST) is mainly distributed in the heart, followed by the liver, muscle, and kidney tissues. Under normal circumstances, the AST content in blood cells is low, but when relative cell damage occurs, the cell permeability increases, and the AST in the cytoplasm is released into the blood, which can cause the blood cell concentration to rise. It is generally used as an auxiliary examination for myocardial infarction and myocarditis in clinical medicine.

The aminotransferase ratio refers to the ratio of aspartate aminotransferase to alanine aminotransferase, and the normal range of the aminotransferase ratio is about 0.8. When the aminotransferase ratio is high, it is necessary to further observe the actual values of alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase. If both alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase are within the normal range, a high aminotransferase ratio does not necessarily have clinical manifestations.

Aspartate aminotransferase (AST, abbreviated as GOT), also known as aspartate aminotransferase. Aspartate aminotransferase is one of the more important aminotransferases, and it is a liver function index used in clinical medicine to determine whether the liver is damaged. Under normal circumstances, the normal range of aspartate aminotransferase is 0-40U/L (per liter).

In the liver function test, there are two items of alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase, and both can reflect the level of liver damage; the difference lies in the origin, onset time, and population indicators of the two aminotransferases.

1. Different origins: Alanine aminotransferase mainly comes from the cytoplasm of liver cells, while aspartate comes from the membrane proteins of the liver.

2. Different onset times: Alanine aminotransferase appears in the mild damage of stem cells, while aspartate aminotransferase appears in liver damage or necrosis. When severe liver disease occurs, aspartate aminotransferase can reflect the severe level of stem cell damage.

3. Different population indicators: In normal people, alanine aminotransferase can be higher than aspartate aminotransferase. During hepatitis, liver damage is mainly due to deformation, and cell necrosis is not severe, so alanine aminotransferase increases significantly higher than aspartate aminotransferase. However, in severe liver diseases such as chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, and liver cancer, liver damage is mainly due to necrosis, and the aspartate aminotransferase level measured at this time is significantly higher than that of alanine aminotransferase.

There are many reasons for the elevated alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels, such as many or long-term alcoholics, viral hepatitis, liver cirrhosis and liver cancer, active biliary tract diseases such as cholecystitis, cholelithiasis, subacute onset, toxic hepatitis caused by a variety of drugs and organic chemical preparations, and some other infectious diseases. Once both are elevated and not treated immediately, viral infection will gradually lead to liver failure, and the disease will gradually worsen, eventually developing into liver cancer.