Persistent Alanine Aminotransferase Elevation in Healthy Swedish Blood Donors - Mainly Caused by Obesity

Abstract

Five hundred consecutive healthy blood donors were tested for serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and 44 (8.8%) had increased levels. Donors with and without raised ALT were compared in several aspects but only weight (expressed as percentage of ideal body weight) and sex differed significantly (119.1 ± 14.5 and 106.3 ± 12.8%, respectively; p<0.001 and males 97.7 and 77.1%, respectively; p<0.01). The 44 donors with raised ALT were followed up and in 13 out of 15 donors with persistently raised ALT without obvious reason, a liver biopsy was performed. Ten donors had various degrees of liver steatosis, 2 had normal liver morphology and in 1 donor chronic hepatitis could not be ruled out. If ALT screening is introduced as a surrogate test for non-A, non-B hepatitis in Swedish blood donors, we suggest that a correction for overweight must be considered in order to minimize donor loss.

A case‐control study of transmission routes for GB virus C/hepatitis G virus in Swedish blood donors lacking markers for hepatitis C virus infection

“…This phenomenon occurs in a high proportion of blood donors followed over time [22,23], and has been shown to bear no relationship to GBV-C/HGV infection [2,16]. Raised ALT levels in blood donors are associated with male gender and increased body weight [24,25], but have not convincingly been shown to be linked to any particular risk behaviour for viral transmission.…”

Could Biochemical Liver Profile Help to Assess Metabolic Response to Aerobic Effort in Athletes?

“…The increase in aminotransferases (AST and ALT) in blood plasma is related to, that is among others, liver or skeletal muscle injuries or heart attack (18). Moreover, population studies have shown significant correlations between ALT activity and body weight as well as body mass index (BMI) (27,29,32). Similar correlations in regard to AST were also reported (26,29).…”

Low Alanine Aminotransferase Activity in Older People Is Associated with Greater Long‐Term Mortality

“…Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) activity is the most specific and widely used screening test in the evaluation of hepatic disease. It has been suggested that age, body mass index (BMI), obesity, and serum cholesterol levels influence ALT activity, yet no clear guidelines for changes in ALT activity with age have been constructed 25–28 . The possible association between ALT activity and mortality has not been previously studied in older people.…”