A Kit For Spectrophotometric Determination of Bile Acids

Abstract

A commercial kit for the determination of bile acids, based on enzymatic dehydrogenation and spectrophotometry, was evaluated for its precision and ability to detect elevation of plasma bile acids in ten patients with mild liver disease. Ten healthy subjects served as controls. A commercial RIA assay of primary conjugated bile acids was used as a reference method. While the RIA test was sensitive enough to differentiate fasting plasma bile acid levels between patients with liver disease and healthy controls ( P >0.01), the kit did not in this case detect a difference. When plasma bile acid levels were further elevated by evacuating the gallbladder with a CCK analog, the sensitivity of the kit approached the RIA method. After gallbladder evacuation, the kit showed a significant difference between controls and patients at 30-minute time intervals and in the 90-minute post-CCK bile acid time curves. When using fasting bile acids for screening of mild liver disease, an RIA method for primary conjugated bile acids is preferable. If a cholecystokinetic agent is used to enhance plasma bile acids, the kit, with its spectrophotometric method, becomes a useful and simpler alternative to the RIA method.