Evaluation of the diagnostic value of serum bile acid in the detection and functional assessment of liver diseases

• Published in: Annals of clinical biochemistry Vol. 22 ( Pt 6); p. 596
• Main Authors: Cravetto, C, Molino, G, Biondi, A M, Cavanna, A, Avagnina, P, Frediani, S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England 01-11-1985
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Alanine Transaminase - blood; Aspartate Aminotransferases - blood; Bile Acids and Salts - blood; Bilirubin - blood; Butyrylcholinesterase - blood; Ceruletide; Cholestasis - blood; Fasting; Female; gamma-Glutamyltransferase - blood; Humans; Liver - pathology; Liver - physiopathology; Liver Diseases - blood; Liver Diseases - diagnosis; Liver Diseases - physiopathology; Liver Function Tests; Male; Middle Aged; Necrosis
• ISSN: 0004-5632
• DOI: 10.1177/000456328502200608

The diagnostic usefulness of fasting total serum bile acids (SBA/F) in the detection of liver diseases and assessment of different aspects of hepatic function alteration was evaluated in 61 healthy subjects and 186 patients with liver disease. The value of SBA/F was compared with other routine tests. In 49 healthy subjects and 92 patients, serum bile acids were also measured after the im administration of Ceruletide as a cholecystokinetic agent (SBA/C). The diagnostic efficacy for the detection of disease states was better with aspartate-aminotransferase (EC 2.6.1.1) and alanine-aminotransferase (EC 2.6.1.2) than with SBA/F. When SBA/C was also determined the diagnostic efficacy was not substantially better than the SBA/F test. In the assessment of hepatocellular necrosis SBA/F showed a higher rate of misclassification errors compared to alanine-aminotransferase (mean error 45% vs 17%), whereas SBA/F gave similar results with direct bilirubin and pseudocholinesterase (EC 3.1.1.8) in the evaluation of cholestasis (mean error 40% vs 41%) and impaired biosynthesis (mean error 39% vs 40%), respectively. Serum bile acid determination did not show any significant diagnostic advantage with respect to the other routine liver tests.