Splanchnic galactose uptake in patients with cirrhosis following single injection.

The galactose elimination capacity is used as a quantitative liver function test and is supposed to express the functioning liver cell mass. Clinical observations indicate, however, that the galactose elimination capacity overestimates functioning liver cell mass, and we therefore compare hepatic (splanchnic) and extrahepatic, extrarenal galactose elimination after a single injection of galactose in 23 patients with reduced liver function. The galactose elimination capacity was consistently greater than the hepatic (splanchnic) galactose elimination rate, estimated during liver vein catheterization. The difference was on the average 0.68 mmol min-1 (SD +/- 0.19, P less than 0.001) or about 40% of the galactose elimination capacity. If this difference, partly or fully, is due to extrahepatic extrarenal elimination, the clinical test for galactose elimination needs a correction (of the order of magnitude of 0.7 mmol min-1) to serve as an absolute measure of the hepatic functional capacity, but since the hepatic uptake rate may be underestimated following a single injection, the correction may be smaller.