Expired hydrocarbons in patients with chronic liver disease

Fifty patients with various types of liver disease and twenty-one healthy subjects were examined for lipoperoxidation in vivo by gaschromatographic assay of volatile hydrocarbons (ethane, ethylene, propane, n-butane, n-pentane) in breath gases. In 15 patients with alcoholic cirrhosis the amount of expired pentane was greater than in all the other groups examined. No significant increase of exhaled ethane, in contrast, was detected in the same patients. These results seem to indicate that pentane is a more sensitive index than ethane for ethanol-induced lipoperoxidation. This simple and non-invasive method opens up promising new opportunities for clarifying in humans, the role of lipoperoxidation in ethanol-induced liver damage, as well as in other chronic liver disease.