Low ALT Is Associated with IBD and Disease Activity: Results from a Nationwide Study

Abstract

Background: Sarcopenia is underdiagnosed in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Low alanine transaminase (ALT) is associated with sarcopenia. We evaluated the association between low ALT and the presence of IBD and disease activity. Methods: Data were collected from a national Israeli health insurer cohort comprising 976,615 patients. Patients with a diagnosis of IBD were compared to healthy controls. After exclusion of patients with liver disease, ALT > 40 IU/L and age Results: Low ALT was more common amongst patients with IBD than in healthy controls (7.76% vs. 5.7% p p p p p p = 0.057, 4.50 mg/L [1.90–11.62] vs. 2.30 [1.00–6.20], p p p Conclusions: Low ALT is more common in patients with IBD and is associated with biochemical disease activity indices.

Keywords

• inflammatory bowel disease
• alanine transaminase
• sarcopenia
• calprotectin