Comparison of ICG Finger Monitor System with Conventional Blood Sampling ICG Clearance Test in Patients with Acute Severe Hepatitis

Abstract

The indocyanine green (ICG) Finger Monitor system is a non-invasive method to measure ICG blood concentrations. The correlation of ICG clearance measured by the Finger Monitor system with that of the conventional blood sampling method has not been studied in patients with acute hepatitis. In thirty-five patients with acute or acute-like severe hepatitis, the plasma disappearance rate of ICG assayed spectrophotometrically by venous sampling (K•ICG) was 0.0768±0.0765 min^(-1) (mean±S.D.); and that measured by monitoring the ICG Finger Monitor system (XK•ICG) was 0.0463±0.0491 min^(-1). The blood retention ratio of ICG at 15 minutes assayed spectrophotometrically by venous sampling (R15) was 46.86±28.55%, and that calculated by the ICG Finger Monitor system (XR15) was 58.45±25.79%. The K•ICG was much higher than the XK•ICG (p＜0.001), and the R15 was much lower than the XR15 (p＜0.001). However, there were good correlations between K•ICG and XK•ICG (r=0.861, p＜0.001), and between R15 and XR15 (r=0.913, p＜0.001). It is concluded that a good correlation in the ICG clearance test was found between Finger Monitor and blood sampling methods; the Finger Monitor method is as good as the blood sampling method in the measurement of liver function.