| Disease | Tests and findings |
| Alcoholic liver disease | History of alcohol abuse |
| AST/ALT >2 with both being less than 500 international unit/mL if alcoholic hepatitis is present | |
| Chronic hepatitis C | ELISA assay for anti-HCV |
| PCR for HCV RNA if confirmatory test is necessary | |
| Primary biliary cholangitis | Antimitochondrial antibodies as an isolated finding |
| IgM elevation | |
| Primary sclerosing cholangitis | Strong association with inflammatory bowel disease |
| Cholangiography to establish the diagnosis | |
| Antinuclear and antismooth muscle antibodies and ANCA; these are not diagnostic | |
| Autoimmune hepatitis | Hypergammaglobulinemia |
| Antinuclear and smooth muscle antibodies and ANCA in type 1; anti-LKM-1 in type 2 | |
| Chronic hepatitis B | HBsAg and HBeAg and, in some cases, HBV DNA by hybridization or bDNA assay |
| Hereditary hemochromatosis | Family history of cirrhosis |
| Transferrin saturation and plasma ferritin should be performed but may be elevated by liver disease itself | |
| Diagnosis established by genetic testing or liver biopsy and calculation of hepatic iron index | |
| Wilson disease | Family or personal history of cirrhosis at a young age |
| Serum ceruloplasmin reduced in 95 percent of patients | |
| Liver biopsy shows increased copper content, which may also be seen in cholestatic liver diseases | |
| Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency | Family or personal history of cirrhosis at a young age |
| Serum AAT; phenotyping if low or borderline values | |
| Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease | History of diabetes mellitus or metabolic syndrome |
| Diagnosis may be suspected by abnormal liver biochemical tests and hepatic imaging showing fatty infiltration and is confirmed by liver biopsy | |
| Congestive hepatopathy | History of right-sided heart failure, constrictive pericarditis, mitral stenosis, tricuspid regurgitation, cor pulmonale, cardiomyopathy |
| Right upper quadrant ultrasonography with Doppler studies of the portal and hepatic veins and hepatic artery, electrocardiogram, and cardiac ultrasound |
