Total bile acids in hyperlipidaemic serum determined by bioluminescent and spectrophotometric methods

A simple, rapid and sensitive bioluminescent method has been used to measure total bile acids in hyperlipidaemic serum. We found that the levels of total bile acids in hypertriglyceridaemic and hypercholesterolemic sera determined by a spectrophotometric method were four-fold higher than those measured by the bioluminescent method (6.73 +/- 4.07 mumol/l (mean +/- SD) by bioluminescent and 26.10 +/- 13.42 mumol/l by the spectrophotometric method). There was no difference in total bile acid levels between these two methods for normal serum (4.72 +/- 3.38 mumol/l by bioluminescence and 4.49 +/- 3.27 mumol/l by the spectrophotometric method).