title: The Relationships between Respiratory Virus Infection and Aminotransferase in Children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We sought to examine the relationship between the clinical manifestations of nonspecific reactive hepatitis and respiratory virus infection in pediatric patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients admitted to the pediatric unit of Konyang University Hospital for lower respiratory tract disease between January 1, 2014 and December 31, 2014 and who underwent reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction tests were examined. The patients were divided into those with increased levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) or aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and those with normal ALT or AST levels. Further, patients with increased ALT and AST levels were individually compared with patients in the normal group, and the blood test results were compared according to the type of respiratory virus.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients with increased ALT or AST levels had one more day of hospital stay, on average, compared with patients in the normal group (5.3±3.1 days vs. 4.4±3.0 days,p=0.019). Patients in the increased ALT level group were younger and had a longer mean hospital stay, compared with patients in the normal group (p=0.022 and 0.003, respectively). The incidences of increased ALT or AST were the highest in adenovirus infections (6/24, 25.0%), followed by enterovirus (2/11, 18.2%) and respiratory syncytial virus A (21/131, 16.0%) infections.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Nonspecific reactive hepatitis is more common among patients with adenovirus, enterovirus and respiratory syncytial virus infection, as well as among those infected at a younger age. Compared with AST levels, ALT levels are better indicators of the severity of nonspecific reactive hepatitis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Konyang University College of Medicine, Daejeon, Korea.
authors.forename: Jun Suk
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Konyang University College of Medicine, Daejeon, Korea.
authors.forename: Jun Sik
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Konyang University College of Medicine, Daejeon, Korea.
authors.forename: Young Hyuk
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Konyang University College of Medicine, Daejeon, Korea.
authors.forename: Kyung Og
authors.initials: KO
authors.lastname: Ko
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Konyang University College of Medicine, Daejeon, Korea.
authors.forename: Jae Woo
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Konyang University College of Medicine, Daejeon, Korea.
authors.forename: Eun Jung
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Cheon
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Konyang University College of Medicine, Daejeon, Korea.
authors.forename: Gyung Min
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Konyang University College of Medicine, Daejeon, Korea.
authors.forename: Jung Min
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Yoon
keywords: Hepatitis; Respiratory tract infections; Transaminases; Viruses