The liver is one of the most important organs in the human body. It performs several tasks that are vital for the normal life of a person. The liver performs a vital role in the digestive and endocrine systems. The liver is an extremely complicated organ with several functions that are performed by its various parts. It is therefore impossible to replace the liver or to substitute the organ with an artificial organ. Hence, a person will not survive without a partially or fully functional liver. The liver also works in breaking down dead red blood cells and during this process, a substance known as bilirubin is excreted by the liver. This substance is passed out of the body in the bile fluid and through the urine. It is a yellow pigment and is the reason why urine is yellow in color. An abnormally high level of bilirubin is responsible for a darker shade of yellow in the urine whereas the converse is true when there is a low quantity of bilirubin in the urine. These quantities tend to change during the day due to either excessive or insufficient water consumption.
The liver performs several vital functions and secretes many different substances into the bloodstream. Any test that tests for the existence of and the level of these substances can be used to judge the liver’s functioning. However, it is common to test for bilirubin, because a sample of urine is extremely easy to collect. There are home test kits for bilirubin that are easily available which can help to detect whether the level of bilirubin is elevated or not. An excessively elevated quantity of bilirubin in the blood is usually caused by a problem with the functioning of the liver. This sort of testing is restricted to just one product of the liver and therefore may not be completely reliable to judge the functioning of the liver. However, if there is a positive result for excess bilirubin, it is most probably caused by liver function problems. One could use this as a reason to go in for medical tests to completely understand the problem affecting the liver and its cause. You can read detailed information on liver function test results
A home liver function test kit has a cup for collection of urine and a stick that is coated in a chemical designed to react with bilirubin. When the sample is collected, the stick must be dipped in the sample. The color of the stick after it has been dipped is to be matched with the key given along with the kit which will then give an indication of the level of bilirubin.
Submitted by N S on May 27, 2010 at 05:49