Discrimination of hepatobiliary diseases by the evaluation of bromsulfophthalein blood kinetics.

Blood BSP kinetics was studied by compartmental analysis in 10 normal subjects, 11 cirrhotic patients, and nine patients suffering from obstructive jaundice. Plasma levels of both free and conjugated BSP were determined at different times after intravenous injection of a standard dose (5 mg/kg body weight) of the dye. A six-compartment model was found suitable for the correct evaluation of hepatobiliary function, but simpler models cannot be used in this respect. Some of the parameters of the model can be adequately evaluated in the studied measurement situation and are used to carry out a diagnostic discrimination; they are lambda21 (transfer constant from blood to liver cells), alpha1 (expression of both conjugating and excretory activity), and beta (related to the blood level of conjugated BSP). It is shown that the values of these parameters allow a fairly good separation among the three groups of subjects under study.