Bile acids measured in serum during fasting as a test for liver disease.

Total serum bile acids were estimated by an enzymic (3alpha-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase) method in 173 fasting patients with different liver diseases, classified into 17 groups by morphological criteria. The results were not highly correlated with those for any of the other 24 tests included in the study, but moderate correlations were observed with bilirubin or alanine aminotransferase (positive) and with prealbumin (negative) in a few patient groups. The sensitivity of total bile acids in serum of fasting individuals as a liver-function test was rather high, comparable with that of serum enzymes. When discriminant analysis was used to identify optimal combinations of tests for the separation of different groups of liver diseases, we found that data on serum bile acids added some new information to that carried by the other 24 tests.