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Radiorespirometric Study of Carbohydrate Metabolism in Childhood Liver Disease

Veterans Administration Hospital, Northport, New York
Tata Memorial Hospital and Wadia Children's Hospital, Bombay, India

Correspondence: For reprints contact: Homai Da Costa,, Radiation Medicine Ctr., Bhabha Atomic Research Ctr., Tata Memorial Hospital, Parel, Bombay—400 012, India.

ABSTRACT

The need for a suitable parameter to evaluate patients with chronic liver disease has been felt for some time, especially in order to judge the response to surgical shunts and the influence of certain drugs and diets on the liver. Since the liver is a major organ for carbohydrate metabolism, it was decided to analyze the in vivo oxidation of such substrates as glucose and galactose labeled with ¹⁴C. Moderately advanced "Indian childhood cirrhosis" and idiopathic fatty hepatic infiltration were selected to represent diffuse chronic liver disease. Oral administration of ¹⁴C-U-glucose or ¹⁴C-l-galactose was followed by analyses of ¹⁴CO₂ in breath by liquid scintillation counting. Conversion of ¹⁴C-glucose to ¹⁴CO₂ was accelerated by both diseases. On the other hand, oxidation of ¹⁴C-galactose was slowed in fatty infiltration and was markedly subnormal in Indian childhood cirrhosis.