COMPARISON OF LIVER BLOOD FLOW VALUES ESTIMATED BY THE BROMSULPHALEIN AND BY THE RADIOGOLD METHOD

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Abstract
Hepatic blood flow can be estimated from the disappearance rate constant of intravenously injected colloidal radiogold as the fraction of blood volume perfusing the liver per unit time. Simultaneous estimations of hepatic blood flow by the radiogold and by the bromsulphalein (BSP) method were carried out in 15 subjects with cardiac or hepatic disorders, the calculation of both liver blood flow values being based on the same plasma volume and the same whple body hematocrit. Values obtained by the radiogold method averaged 84.4% of those examined by the BSP method, with large individual variations in the direction and in the magnitude of the differences. It is believed that the majority of the known errors of the BSP method leads to an overestimation of the true hepatic blood flow whereas the radiogold method yields values which most probably are too low. The observed large individual variations in the direction and the magnitude of the differences could be explained by delays in the assumed rapid mixing of the injected radiogold within the circulation, by variations in the efficiency of splenic and hepatic removal of the colloid, and by non-uniform extraction of BSP by the liver.