Published online Aug 15, 2004. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v10.i16.2394
Revised: November 21, 2003
Accepted: December 16, 2003
Published online: August 15, 2004
AIM: To investigate whether the non-invasive real-time Indocynine green (ICG) clearance is a sensitive index of liver viability in patients before, during, and after liver transplantation.
METHODS: Thirteen patients were studied, two before, three during, and eight following liver transplantation, with two patients suffering acute rejection. The conventional invasive ICG clearance test and ICG pulse spectrophotometry non-invasive real-time ICG clearance test were performed simultaneously. Using linear regression analysis we tested the correlation between these two methods. The transplantation condition of these patients and serum total bilirubin (T. Bil), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and platelet count were also evaluated.
RESULTS: The correlation between these two methods was excellent (r2 = 0.977).
CONCLUSION: ICG pulse spectrophotometry clearance is a quick, non-invasive, and reliable liver function test in transplantation patients.