title: Relationship of serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) to body mass index (BMI) in blood donors: the need to correct ALT for BMI in blood donor screening.
abstract: A study was carried out on 1,028 voluntary blood donors to see how body mass index (BMI) correlated with the serum alanine amino transferase (ALT) activity. The mean ALT (U/l) values were 19.35, 27.63, 40.79 and 54.41 in the four BMI categories of < or = 20, 20.1-25, 25.1-30 and > 30, respectively. This study showed that the mean serum ALT level of obese subjects (BMI > 30 kg/m2), compared with the two categories of normal subjects (i.e. BMI < or = 20 and BMI = 20.1-25 kg/m2), was increased by 2.8 and 1.96 times, respectively. Compared with the BMI group < or = 20, there was a gradual per cent increase in the mean serum ALT in the three different BMI groups: 20.1-25 (+133%), 25.1-30 (+196%) and > 30 kg/m2 (+280%). This indicates the need to correct ALT values for BMI for blood donor screening, instead of using actual ALT values.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Science, Lucknow, UP, India.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ramesh
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Saraswat
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Choudhury
authors.forename: R K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Gupta
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000410:Alanine Transaminase / Q000097:blood*; D001782:Blood Donors; D015992:Body Mass Index; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged
chemical_list: D000410:Alanine Transaminase