Serum bile acids in alcoholic liver disease. Comparison with histological features of the disease.

Fasting serum bile acids were measured by gas-liquid chromatography in 64 patients with alcoholic liver disease and compared with histological features in their percutaneous liver biopsy specimens. Total bile acid concentrations were normal (less than 2 mug/ml) or minimally increased in 6 patients in whom fatty infiltration was the only hepatic lesion. In the remaining 58 patients with more severe histological lesions, levels were increased in 93%, whereas serum bilirubins were elevated in only 43%. Chenodeoxycholic acid was usually the predominant serum bile acid, regardless of the degree of necrosis or connective tissue change in the biopsy specimen. Only small amounts of the secondary bile acids, deoxycholic acid and lithocholic acid, were detected. Levels of these secondary bile acids did not correlate with histological features.