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Live function in hepatic and extrahepatic diseases

1. The results of clinical experience with 326 cases

  • Clinical Medicine: Diseases Of Digestion
  • Published:
The American Journal of Digestive Diseases

Summary

In our patients with acute hepatitis, as a group, the Rose Bengal test was positive in 94 per cent, and the modified glucose tolerance test in 93 per cent of cases. In chronic hepatitis, the dye excretion test was positive in 96 per cent, and the metabolic test was positive in 66 per cent of patients.

In patients with neoplasms of the liver, the Rose Bengal test was positive in 79 per cent and modified glucose tolerance in 60 per cent of cases.

A surprisingly large proportion of patients with extrahepatic diseases showed impairment by one or both tests. This applied especially to syphilis, hyperthyroidism, congestive heart failure, cholecystitis and diseases of the hematopoietic and nervous systems.

From a comparison of the two tests in 98 patients, we see that in diseases of the liver there was agreement between them in 72 per cent of cases. In the group of patients with neoplasms of the liver, agreement between the two tests was observed in 75 per cent of cases. When both tests were used in patients with extrahepatic diseases, consistent results were obtained in 66 per cent of cases. In the last group, the least degree of correlation is to be expected because the extrahepatic factors which influence carbohydrate metabolism on one hand, and the reticulo-endothelial system on the other, are apt to be more prominent than in the two groups with anatomical involvement of the liver where the hepatic factor is dominant.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. San Francisco, California

    G. K. Wever M.D., T. L. Althausen M.D., G. R. Biskind M.D. & WM. J. Kerr M.D.

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  1. G. K. Wever M.D.
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  2. T. L. Althausen M.D.
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  3. G. R. Biskind M.D.
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  4. WM. J. Kerr M.D.
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Additional information

From the Department of Medicine and Department of Pathology of the University of California Medical School, San Francisco.

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Wever, G.K., Althausen, T.L., Biskind, G.R. et al. Live function in hepatic and extrahepatic diseases. American Journal of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition 2, 93–99 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03000227

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03000227

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