OBJECTIVETo noninvasively evaluate hepatic functional blood flow, intrahepatic shunt rate and hepatic functional reserve in both normal and cirrhotic liver using D-sorbitol and indocyanine green measured by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).

METHODSMale Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were divided into normal control and cirrhotic group in which the rats were administrated with tetrachloride. Then the isolated perfused liver models were established. The pharmacokinetic indexes of D-sorbitol and indocyanine green (ICG) were measured by the traditional spectrophotometry (SPEC) and HPLC respectively.

RESULTS(1) HPLC showed that ICG contained genuine ICG (ICGg) and ICG degraded products (ICGdp), which had similar spectrum but metabolic kinetics different with the retention time of 8.9 minutes and 24.2 minutes respectively. (2) Hepatic intrinsic metabolic capacity (QINT, I) was (36.57+/-13.03) ml/min in control group and (14.39+/-5.13) ml/min in cirrhotic group (t=7.08, P<0.01). (3) Hepatic functional blood flow (QFUNC) in cirrhotic group declined, compared with that in control group (34.06 ml/min+/-5.12 ml/min vs. 17.54 ml/min+/-7.02 ml/min, t=8.41, P<0.01), while intrahepatic shunt rate (QIHS) increased markedly (9.9%+/-1.4% vs. 47.5%+/-20.9%, t=8.35, P<0.01).

CONCLUSION(1) HPLC method is superior to SPEC in measuring ICG, because it can avoid the disturbance from ICGdp, so that ICG measured by HPLC is valid for QINT, I evaluation. (2) The hepatic clearance of D-sorbitol measurement is a noninvasive and reliable method for evaluating the total blood flow in normal liver, and hepatic functional blood flow and intrahepatic shunt rate in cirrhotic liver. (3) Combining D-sorbitol with indocyanine green measurement is helpful for assessment of liver functional reserve.