Background: The goal of the retrospective observatory cross-sectional study was to evaluate the benefit of alanine aminotransferase screening of blood donors in prevention of hepatitis B and C transmission by haemotherapy in context of actual screening methods.
Methods: Donations with elevated ALT more than the defined limit (ALT men 80 IU/l, women 64 IU/l, spectrophotometric UV test, KUADRO(TM), BPC BioSed Srt, Castelnuovo di Porto Roma, Italy) and/or reactivity any of the hepatitis screening parameters HBsAg, anti-HBc, anti-HCV (chemiluminescence method, ARCHITECT i2000(TM), Illinois, USA) were evaluated. Donors were confirmatory retested. They were classified into groups with common biological properties according to their final virological status and statistically evaluated in programs Graph Pad Prism 6.05 and Microsoft Excel 2003.
Results: From a total of 61 214 donations elevated ALT was found in 420 (0.69 %), active HBV in 25 (0.04 %), active HCV infection in 5 (0.01 %) blood donors. Coincidental elevation of ALT and active HBV infection occured in 1 donor (0.002 %), as well as HCV (0.002 %). Levels of ALT were higher in the group with elevated ALT without active HBV or HCV infection than in groups with active HCV and HCV infection (p < 0.05). Occurence of blood donor in seronegative anti-HCV window was not observed. Elevated ALT was low specific (69.14 %) and senzitive (6.45 %) for active hepatitis. We did not prove positive correlation of ALT and S/CO (signal-to-cut-off) anti-HBc (Spearman r = -0,565, p < 0.0001), ALT and S/CO anti-HCV (Spearman r = -0.1046, p = 0.0022), in ALT and S/CO HBsAg the result was not statistically significant (Spearman r = -0.00968, p = 0.77). Positive but statistically insignificant correlation ALT and S/CO anti-HCV occured in the group of 5 blood donors with active HCV infection (Spearman r = 0.4, p = 0.51). Screening scheme for HCV infection testing anti-HCV + ALT was per one donation by € 0.18 more expensive than the scheme anti-HCV + HCV RNA due to amount of waisted donations with ALT elevation (825 TU, € 41 388.89).
Conclusion: Elevation of ALT in blood donors was not pathognomonic for hepatitis B and C infection. Screening of HCV consisting of anti-HCV + HCV RNA (nucleic acid testing method, COBAS AmpliScreen HCV 2.0(TM), ROCHE Diagnostics, Hague Road, Indianapolis, USA) is more cost-effective than the scheme anti-HCV + ALT.
Keywords: alanine aminotransferase - haemovigilance - hepatitis B - hepatitis C - screening..