[Studies on diagnostic and prognostic validity of aminophenazone breath test in liver cirrhosis]

In 59 patients with liver cirrhosis (23 female, 36 male; aged between 30 and 73 years) the aminophenazone breath-test according to the Haustein-Schenker modification was performed. The results were related to morphological, clinical and haemodynamic criteria. In contrast to a control group, consisting of 8 women and 8 men aged between 23 and 27 years with healthy livers, the aminophenazone elimination proved to be heavily delayed (p less than 0.001). In consideration of the Havanna-classification the 14CO2-elimination was most heavily retarded in patients with portal cirrhosis, but compared with non-portal cirrhosis, the difference was below significance level. A significant dependence on the clinical degree of severity was found. The aminophenazone-elimination was frequently low in portal hypertension and considerably decreased after portocaval shunt with values below 200 DPM/mmol CO2/70 kg body weight. In some cases it could be demonstrated, that the test is not only of diagnostic relevance, but reflects the progression of cirrhosis.