Sikandar Hayat Khan, Farah Sadia.
ALT and indices of body fat deposition: the link.
J Fatima Jinnah Med Coll Lahore Jan ;2(2):76-81.

Objective- To measure the relationship between ALT and parameters of body fat indices in apparently healthy individuals Design- cross-sectional study Place and duration of study- This study was carried out between December-2006 to September-2007 at department of pathology, PNS Rahat, Karachi. Subjects and methods- A total of 219 subjects [males=181, females=34] were selected after various exclusions from a target population of apparently healthy subjects who presented at PNS Rahat for assessment of medical fitness for multiple reasons. Physical examination for BMI, WHpR, WHtR were carried out according to WHO’s recommendations. Serum alanine aminotransferase was analyzed as per IFCC recommendations. Main outcome measures-ALT, BMI, WHpR and WHtR Results- The various measures of body fat indices have shown positive correlations, albeit weak with serum ALT levels [(BMI: r=0.247, p < 0.001) (WHpR: r=0.215, p < 0.001) (WHtR: r=0.260, p < 0.001)]. Rising BMI was significantly associated with serum ALT levels (p< 0.001). Serum ALT levels were not found to be related with age, smoking, and geographical association of subjects within Pakistan. Tukey’s post-hoc comparison after one way ANOVA shows that only prolong stay in an urbanized set up is associated with raised serum ALT levels. Conclusion- Serum alanine aminotransferase levels for a particular individual must be interpreted with anthropometric measures of fat deposition, gender, and urbanization status.

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