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Persistent Alanine Aminotransferase Elevation in Healthy Swedish Blood Donors ‐ Mainly Caused by Obesity
Author(s) -
Wejstål R.,
Hansson G.,
Lindholm A.,
Norkrans G.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
vox sanguinis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.68
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1423-0410
pISSN - 0042-9007
DOI - 10.1111/j.1423-0410.1988.tb05083.x
Subject(s) - alanine aminotransferase , steatosis , medicine , gastroenterology , overweight , liver biopsy , obesity , blood donor , alanine transaminase , hepatitis , liver enzyme , chronic hepatitis , biopsy , immunology , virus
. 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.