Dose-response relationship between arsenic exposure and the serum enzymes for liver function tests in the individuals exposed to arsenic: a cross sectional study in Bangladesh

Table 2 Comparison of the activities of serum hepatic enzymes in the quartile water arsenic exposure groups by multivariate linear regression analyses

Dependent variables	Independent variable (Water As)	Before adjustment for covariates			After adjustment for covariates ^b
		Coefficient (95% CI)	p -value (t-test)	R²	Coefficient (95% CI)	p -value (t-test)	R²
ALP	Lowest (0.11 - 24.7)	-	-	0.230	-	-	0.279
	Low (34 - 142)	0.051 (0.005 - 0.097)	< 0.05		0.039 (- 0.008 - 0.085)	0.11
	Medium (145 - 242)	0.082 (0.036 - 0.129)	< 0.01		0.087 (0.041 - 0.134)	< 0.01
	High (249 - 546)	0.175 (0.129 - 0.222)	< 0.01		0.165 (0.119 - 0.212)	< 0.01
AST	Lowest (0.11 - 24.7)	-	-	0.172	-	-	0.217
	Low (34 - 142)	0.016 (-0.028 - 0.061)	0.47		0.025 (- 0.020 - 0.070)	0.27
	Medium (145 - 242)	0.027 (- 0.018 - 0.071)	0.24		0.023 (- 0.022 - 0.067)	0.32
	High (249 - 546)	0.13 (0.086 - 0.175)	< 0.01		0.124 (0.080 - 0.169)	< 0.01
ALT	Lowest (0.11 - 24.7)	-	-	0.135	-	-	0.207
	Low (34 - 142)	0.035 (- 0.037 - 0.107)	0.34		0.060 (- 0.011 - 0.132)	0.10
	Medium (145 - 242)	0.085 (0.013 - 0.157)	< 0.05		0.071 (0.00 - 0.143)	0.05
	High (249 - 546)	0.189 (0.117 - 0.261)	< 0.01		0.186 (0.115 - 0.257)	< 0.01

^bAdjusted for age, sex, BMI, smoking habit and skin lesions; Log-transformed dependent and independent variables were used; Degrees of freedom (df) before and after adjustments were made for covariates, (3, 196) and (8, 191). Units of water arsenic, μg/L; ALP, AST and ALT activities, U/L.

ISSN: 1476-069X