title: Body water compartments in patients with obstructive jaundice.
abstract: To elucidate the pathogenesis of renal dysfunction associated with obstructive jaundice, body water compartments were measured using a multi-isotope dilution technique in ten patients with biliary tract obstruction and in ten control subjects matched for age, sex, weight, height and body surface area. Expressed as a fraction of body-weight, total body water was reduced in jaundiced patients (41.8 versus 46.2 per cent, P less than 0.02). Extracellular water volume was also reduced in patients with jaundice (20.3 versus 24.3 per cent, P less than 0.003) owing to a reduction of the interstitial space (16.1 versus 19.5 per cent, P less than 0.004) and, to a lesser degree, of the plasma volume (4.2 versus 4.8 per cent, P = 0.1). There was a close correlation in jaundiced patients between plasma volume and the creatinine clearance rate (r2 = 0.56, P less than 0.02) and between plasma volume and extracellular volume (r2 = 0.77, P less than 0.0001). Extracellular volume in such patients also correlated with the percentage weight loss (r2 = 0.42, P = 0.04). Obstructive jaundice is associated with a contracted extracellular water compartment, although extracellular water, as a percentage of body-weight, increased in proportion to the body-weight lost. Reduction of the interstitial volume and a marginally reduced plasma volume may be determinant factors in the pathogenesis of the renal and haemodynamic disturbances observed in patients with biliary tract obstruction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Hospital Universitari del Mar, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sitges-Serra
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Carulla
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Piera
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Martínez-Ródenas
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Franch
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pereira
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Gubern
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001834:Body Water / Q000502:physiology*; D001835:Body Weight / Q000502:physiology; D002779:Cholestasis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010953:Plasma Volume / Q000502:physiology