THE ETIOLOGY OF HYPERTRANSAMINASEMIA IN CHILDREN TREATED AT THAI NGUYEN NATIONAL HOSPITAL

Abstract

The objective of this research was to investigate the causes of elevated levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) in children who were treated at Thai Nguyen National Hospital. We retrospectively analyzed the medical records of children who presented with elevated transaminase levels (AST and/or ALT levels was higher than 40 IU/L) aged between 1 month and 15 years, for demographic features, and laboratory findings. Patients were diagnosed with hypertransaminasemia in the Pediatric Center from June 2022 to June 2023. The study population included 412 subjects, of whom 56.6% were male, and the rate of male/female was 1.1/1 with a mean age of 18.48 ± 27.57 months. The most common cause of the elevated transaminases was detected in patients using corticosteroids (AST: 223.34±736.84 UI/L, ALT: 157.60±454.03 UI/L), using antibiotics (AST: 80.32±65.10 UI/L, ALT: 67.32±34.93 UI/L) and using antipyretic (AST: 76.61±55.51 UI/L; ALT: 67.08±41.63 UI/L). The clinical showed that the concentration of hypertransaminasemia was the highest in patients with hepatomegaly (AST: 4239.79±0.0 UI/L; ALT: 450.74±0.0 UI/L), overweight/ Obesity (AST: 187.95±227.84 UI/L, ALT: 119.90±115.02 UI/L), vomiting/nausea (AST: 135.90±460.09 UI/L, ALT: 74.82±67.10 UI/L), splenomegaly (AST: 153.10±0.0 UI/L; ALT: 75.10±0.0 UI/L). Children with elevated liver enzymes are mainly seen using corticosteroids, antipyretic drugs, viral hepatitis, and meningitis.