title: Evaluation of the diagnostic value of serum bile acid in the detection and functional assessment of liver diseases.
abstract: 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.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cravetto
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Molino
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Biondi
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cavanna
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Avagnina
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Frediani
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000410:Alanine Transaminase / Q000097:blood; D001219:Aspartate Aminotransferases / Q000097:blood; D001647:Bile Acids and Salts / Q000097:blood*; D001663:Bilirubin / Q000097:blood; D002091:Butyrylcholinesterase / Q000097:blood; D002108:Ceruletide; D002779:Cholestasis / Q000097:blood; D005215:Fasting; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D008111:Liver Function Tests; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009336:Necrosis; D005723:gamma-Glutamyltransferase / Q000097:blood
chemical_list: D001647:Bile Acids and Salts; D002108:Ceruletide; D005723:gamma-Glutamyltransferase; D001219:Aspartate Aminotransferases; D000410:Alanine Transaminase; D002091:Butyrylcholinesterase; D001663:Bilirubin