A VALIDATED TECHNIQUE FOR THE ANALYSIS OF BILIARY BILE-ACID SECRETIONIN DONOR LIVERS PRIOR TO TRANSPLANTATION

Many parameters currently used for the pre-transplant assessment of li ver allografts, are not reliable enough in predicting the likelihood o f early graft dysfunction or non-function. it is generally accepted th at bile secretion is a sign of hepatic function post-transplant and th at bile flow shows a close linear relationship to the secretion of bil e acids (''apparent choleretic activity''). We have studied bile flow, biliary bile acid concentrations and composition and measured apparen t choleretic activity from hepatic bile collected with a new technique under controlled conditions at the time of retrieval from 18 donor li vers. More than three samples were collected from each of 13 donors an d a total of 65 samples of hepatic bile were analysed. Of these, ten s howed typical apparent choleretic activity with a positive slope in th e regression line analysis (correlation coefficient of 0.9), validatin g our collection technique.