ESTIMATION OF HEPATIC BLOOD-FLOW BY HYDROGEN GAS CLEARANCE

  • 1 April 1986
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 99  (4) , 439-445
Abstract
The hydrogen gas clearance technique was evaluated to estimate regional hepatic blood flow. Initially, the H2 gas method was compared to the indocyanine green clearance in mini pigs. The blood flow measured by the H2 gas method (0.49 .+-. 0.03 ml/min per gm) was only 39% of the calculated blood flow by the indocyanine green method (1.26 .+-. 0.14 ml/min per gm). The blood flow determined by H2 gas decreased to 0.06 .+-. 0.04 ml/min per gm after ligation of the hepatic artery. No difference in blood flow was found by simultaneous measurements on the left (0.89 .+-. 0.1 ml/min per gm) and right (0.96 .+-. 0.13 ml/min per gm) liver lobes in rats. After ligation of the left hepatic artery in the rats, a delayed response to H2 application was present and the determined blood flow (0.14 .+-. 0.02 ml/min per gm) was significantly reduced (p < 0.001) compared with the right liver lobe H2 determined blood flow as a control. No current was generated after ligation of the left hepatic artery and the portal vein indicating that there was no blood flow measured by the gas H2 method. The results indicate that the H2 gas clearance technique may be a method that assesses hepatic arterial liver perfusion rather than estimates total hepatic blood flow. The safety and simplicity of the H2 gas clearance technique may make it suitable for clinical application in serial measurement of hepatic arterial blood flow in man.

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