title: [Low ALT activity amongst patients hospitalized in internal medicine wards is a widespread phenomenon associated with low vitamin B6 levels in their blood].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Monitoring the activity of ALT (SGPT) in the blood is part of the routine, clinical-laboratory follow-up in hospitalized patients. In most cases, activity levels which are above the normal range are considered pathology, mostly related to lysis of hepatocytes, as in cases of hepatitis. Little has been investigated and published in regard to cases in which the ALT activity level is lower than normal.
  
  
  METHODS
  Since normal ALT activity is regarded essential for normal metabolism and homeostasis, we decided to evaluate the extent to which low ALT levels are found in healthy and hospitalized patient populations and to characterize its circumstances and etiology. Furthermore, we measured the blood concentration of vitamin B6 (being the source for the ALT co-factor, Pyridoxal-5-Phosphate) in a random sample of patients with lower than normal ALT activity level.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of the current study showed a high prevalence, exceeding a third of hospitalized patients in internal medicine departments have low levels of ALT in the serum, and that a linear correlation (p = 0.0004, r = 0.47) exists between lower than normal ALT activity and low concentrations of vitamin B6 in the serum. The authors attribute these findings to a high prevalence of frailty amongst hospitalized patients. We aim to conduct further investigations intended to better characterize quantifiable parameters of frailty amongst our patient population.
authors: Erez
authors: E
authors: Ramati
authors: Ariel
authors: A
authors: Israel
authors: Tal Kessler
authors: Naama
authors: N
authors: Petz-Sinuani
authors: Ben-Ami
authors: BA
authors: Sela
authors: Idan Goren
authors: Atar
authors: A
authors: Grinfeld
authors: Bruno
authors: B
authors: Lavi
authors: Gad
authors: G
authors: Segal
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000410:Alanine Transaminase / Q000097:blood* / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D006748:Hospital Departments; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D025101:Vitamin B 6 / Q000097:blood*; D026681:Vitamin B 6 Deficiency / Q000453:epidemiology*
chemical_list: D025101:Vitamin B 6; D000410:Alanine Transaminase