Hepatic Blood Flow in Various Hepato-biliary Diseases

ABSTRACT

Hepatic blood flow was studied by the determination of the fractional clearance of intravenously administered colloid 198Au in 35 cases of normal subjects, 36 cases of liver cirrhosis, 18 cases of primary cancer of the liver, seven cases of liver abscess, five cases of hepatitis and 10 cases of hepato-biliary diseases. There was no appreciable difference in the mean values of the fractional clerance between the normal subjects and biliary tract diseases. On the contrary, it was diminshed in liver cirrrhosis, primary cancer of the liver, hepatitis and liver abscess compared with that in the normal subjects, and the diminution in liver cirrhosis and primary cancer of the liver was significant, and also the fractional clearance in the former was significant, and also the fractional clearance in the former was significantly smaller than that in the latter. However, the individual datum both in the normal control and diseased groups showed a marked overlapping among them except that in the normal subjects and biliary tract diseases the fractional clearance was above 0.10 in almost all cases. In cirrhosis of the liver there was no relationship between the fractional clearance and liver functions.