a survey on the fluctuations of liver enzymes in severely dehydrated children with acute gastroenteritis

Background: acute gastroenteritis (age) is a potential life-threatening condition in young children.objectives: our aim was to assess hepatic enzymes levels in children with age and severe dehydration (> 10%).methods: we enrolled 138 children with age admitted to the amir-al-momenin hospital of zabol city in 2016. children with severe dehydration (> 10%), according to the vesikari score, were included. complete blood count, selected inflammatory markers, and hepatic enzymes were investigated.results: males and females comprised 89 (64.5%) and 49 (35.5%) of the cases, respectively. the mean age was 3 ± 2.7 years old. concomitant aspartate aminotransferase (ast) and alanine aminotransferase (alt) elevation and isolated ast elevation were observed in 22 (15.9%) and 60 (43.5%) of the patients, respectively. normal ast and alt levels were observed in 56 (40.6%) of the patients. the ast level significantly correlated with age (r = -0.230, p = 0.007) and platelet count (r = 0.184, p =0.03). significant correlations were also detected between alt level and age (r = -0.230, p = 0.007), esr (r = -0.240, p = 0.03), and k^+ level (r = 0.244, p = 0.03).conclusions: our results highlighted relatively high frequency of elevated liver enzymes in severely dehydrated children with age.