AST
Abbreviation with 6 meanings
| Stands for | Aspartate aminotransferase |
|---|---|
| Meanings | 6 |
| Categories | Medical, Units & Measurements, Military, Sports, Technology & Computing |
AST has six meanings. The most common are Aspartate aminotransferase (laboratory test) and Arabia Standard Time (time zone); it can also stand for Atlantic Standard Time, Aviation Survival Technician, Assists and Abstract syntax tree.
Meanings of AST at a glance
| # | AST stands for | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aspartate aminotransferase | Medical › Laboratory Test |
| 2 | Arabia Standard Time | Units & Measurements › Time Zone |
| 3 | Atlantic Standard Time | Units & Measurements › Time Zone |
| 4 | Aviation Survival Technician | Military › US Navy and Coast Guard Rating |
| 5 | Assists | Sports › Basketball |
| 6 | Abstract syntax tree | Technology & Computing › Programming |
1. Aspartate aminotransferase
Medical · Laboratory Test Abbreviations
Enzyme found in liver, heart, skeletal muscle, kidney and red blood cells, so a raised level is less specific for the liver than ALT. Typical upper limits are around 35 to 40 U/L; an AST-to-ALT ratio above 2 suggests alcohol-associated liver disease.
Example: AST 210, ALT 85, GGT 340 in a heavy drinker: ratio supports alcoholic hepatitis.
Formerly called SGOT. AST also rises with muscle injury, rhabdomyolysis, hemolysis and heart attack, so an isolated high AST prompts a CK check. It has a shorter half-life than ALT (about 17 hours versus about 47), so AST falls first as acute injury resolves. AST is a component of the FIB-4 score used to estimate liver fibrosis.
2. Arabia Standard Time
Units & Measurements · Time Zone Abbreviations
Three hours ahead of UTC all year, Arabia Standard Time covers Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Iraq and Yemen, none of which observes daylight saving.
Example: Doha flights board at 01:15 AST; please arrive three hours before departure.
Iraq dropped daylight saving in 2008. The UAE and Oman, though neighbors, use Gulf Standard Time (UTC+4). East Africa Time and Moscow time share the same UTC+3 offset. Because Atlantic Standard Time is also AST, flight and meeting confirmations usually add the city name.
3. Atlantic Standard Time
Units & Measurements · Time Zone Abbreviations
Four hours behind UTC, Atlantic Standard Time is used in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, parts of Quebec and Labrador, Bermuda, and year-round in Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and much of the Eastern Caribbean.
Example: Our San Juan office is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. AST all year.
The Canadian Maritimes and Bermuda switch to Atlantic Daylight Time (ADT, UTC−3) in summer, while Puerto Rico and the Caribbean islands stay on AST. The same letters also mean Arabia Standard Time (UTC+3), seven hours ahead, so confirm which is meant.
4. Aviation Survival Technician
Military · US Navy and Coast Guard Rating Abbreviations
Coast Guard rescue swimmers who deploy from helicopters to recover people from the sea, ice or shore, and who also maintain aviation survival equipment. They are the service's best-known rating thanks to dramatic hurricane and offshore rescues.
Example: AST2 Malone was lowered from the helicopter to pull three fishermen from the life raft.
The Coast Guard rescue swimmer program was created in the 1980s after the 1983 sinking of the collier Marine Electric, in which most of the crew died in frigid water before rescuers could reach them. The demanding training at Elizabeth City, North Carolina, has a high attrition rate.
5. Assists
Sports · Basketball Abbreviations
Pass that leads directly to a teammate's made basket, credited by the official scorer. AST is the standard box-score column for playmaking.
Example: Box score: 21 PTS, 8 REB, 12 AST, 3 STL.
Scott Skiles holds the NBA single-game record of 30 assists (1990). Hockey and soccer count assists differently: hockey credits up to two players per goal. Scorer discretion means assist totals are the most debated basic stat.
6. Abstract syntax tree
Technology & Computing · Programming Abbreviations
A tree representation of source code's structure produced by a parser, in which each node is a construct such as a function, operator or variable. Compilers, linters, formatters and code-transformation tools all work on ASTs.
Example: The codemod walks the AST and renames every call to the deprecated function.
"Abstract" means details such as parentheses, commas and whitespace are dropped, unlike in a concrete parse tree. Babel, ESLint and Prettier for JavaScript and Python's ast module expose ASTs to developers, and the AST Explorer website displays them interactively. In time zones AST abbreviates Atlantic Standard Time.
Related abbreviations
More laboratory test abbreviations
- Anti-Xa – Anti-factor Xa assay
- ApoB – Apolipoprotein B
- aPTT – Activated partial thromboplastin time
- ASO – Antistreptolysin O
- BCx – Blood cultures
- BE – Base excess
- BG – Blood glucose
- BMP – Basic metabolic panel
See all 135 laboratory test abbreviations →
More time zone abbreviations
- AKDT – Alaska Daylight Time
- AKST – Alaska Standard Time
- AoE – Anywhere on Earth
- ART – Argentina Time
- AWST – Australian Western Standard Time
- BRT – Brasilia Time
- BST – British Summer Time
- CAT – Central Africa Time
See all 64 time zone abbreviations →
This entry is for general education and is not medical advice. Abbreviation use varies between institutions; always confirm in context.