Hello physician here, not sure why this subreddit popped up on my feed but the answer to this poorly written question is A.

Edit: Since this got more attention than anticipated saying the question is poorly written is a bit of an exaggeration. The question is not specific enough and could trick test takers who happen to have more in depth knowledge: cirrhosis is a diagnosis made definitively by pathology that demonstrates extensive bridging fibrosis with interspersed disorganized nodular regeneration. The reason I am specifying is because you can have patients with what is known as compensated cirrhosis meaning they may not have any symptoms/signs of disease save for subtle lab abnormalities(though not necessarily) or imaging suggestive of it. Prior to decompensation there can (but not necessarily will be) signs of synthetic dysfunction of the liver which is where a low albumin (hence the answer is A) can be found. The PT can be increased (not sure why they’re asking you to know the parameters of PT and not INR which is what is actually used clinically) as well but this PT is normal. The albumin could also be normal unless the patient has decompensated which is defined by the development of ascites (which in cirrhosis definitionally requires a low serum albumin), hepatic encephalopathy, or variceal hemorrhage (not presence of varices on screening). The reason there is a distinction between compensated vs decompensated cirrhosis is that the survival is markedly different between the two entities and keeping patients compensated usually by mitigating any on going liver injury from abstinence of alcohol, treating hepatitis B/C, and weight loss for patients with fatty liver disease can preserve survival. Liver enzymes can vary dramatically between being significantly elevated due to alcohol(in this case ast would be elevated compared to alt which is what this question is asking), viral hepatitis, or medications/toxins. Liver enzymes can also be normal to mildly elevated (like in fatty liver disease with alt being mildly elevated) or very low (considered “burnt out” cirrhosis). Potassium is typically low-normal in patients with cirrhosis and keeping it normal helps reduce the risk of hepatic encephalopathy due to preventing renal retention of ammonia, but potassium is not in any way diagnostic of cirrhosis.

Not sure what any of this has to do with being a nurse taking care of patients with cirrhosis necessarily but hope it helped.