Significance of serum aminograms in diagnosis and prognosis of liver diseases.

The diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of various liver diseases are still frequently equivocal despite the various liver function tests and invasive procedures presently available to the clinician. The introduction of the Beckman Amino Acid Analyzer Model 119 Cl, greatly facilitated the determination of the individual amino acids in serum and cerebrospinal fluid, and the data thus obtained seem to help in the differentiation of some of the commoner types of liver disease. These data indicate that changes in the concentration of some of the aromatic amino acids (AAA) and branched chain amino acids (BCAA) are helpful in the diagnosis, evaluation of the severity of the hepatic morphologic changes, and prognosis of the type of liver disease. Moreover, the ratio between the AAA and the BCAA seems to be indicative of certain liver diseases. We describe the alterations in the amino acid patterns which may help in the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of patients with certain types of liver disease.