[Endotoxinaemia in liver cirrhosis (author's transl)]

23 patients with liver cirrhosis of diverse etiology and of different activity levels and grades of compensation of the portal circulation were examined with regard to the systemic endotoxinaemia. The endotoxin was determined using the Limulus-Amoebocyte-Lysat-test. Endotoxin was traceable in the venous blood of 7 out of 23 patients (= 30,4%). No relation was found between endotoxaemia and the activity or grade of severity of liver cirrhosis; nor were there any accumulation of endotoxinaemia in patients with collateral circulation or portal decompensation. Consequently, as a result of our findings, the prognostic value of the symptom endotoxinaemia remains debatable, then endotoxinaemia does not always mean endotoxicosis. Particularly high immunoglobulin concentration and low albumin values in serum of endotoxin-positive cirrhotics indicate a "spillovet" of antigen substances and also of endotoxines in the body circulation resulting from insufficiency of the liver-RHS. Parallel analysis of microbian small bowel flora in 10 patients indicate that coli-dysbiosis appears to play a role in the development of systemic endoxinaemia, although the latter was also traceable in borderline cases of eubiosis/dysbiosis. Our findings strengthen the view that it is not possible to simply translate the findings in animals on to human liver diseases. Quite a number of the mechanisms being discussed are still with uncleared details and they give only a blurred picture of the pathophysiology of endotoxinaemia.