Hepatic circulation during and after infectious hepatitis.

Abstract

Hepatic circulation was studied at rest and during and after supine bicycle exercise by hepatic venous catheterization and i.v. constant infusion of indocyanine green dye in 3 males with infectious hepatitis, both during the acute stage and 5–6 weeks later during convalescence. In 2 of them injections of a solution of 85Kr and 133Xe in saline were also given at rest into an occluded hepatic vein, and the disappearance rates of the isotopes were measured with an external scintillator over the liver. Hepatic fat content was estimated from the actual hematocrit and the quotient between the half-time for krypton and for xenon. During the acute stage the patients had larger total hepatic blood flow, higher splanchnic oxygen uptake, greater difference between wedged and free hepatic venous pressure, and higher hepatic fat content than a previously studied group of controls. At re-examination, all values had decreased markedly as compared with those from the first study, hepatic blood flow and splanchnic oxygen uptake by 20–25%, and all values equalled those of the control group. It is concluded that the observed changes in the acute stage were attributable to the disease and that they were reversible.