13C-methacetin breath test and oxygen supply

Prognostic Value of the 13 C-Methacetin Breath Test in Adults with Acute Liver Failure and Non-acetaminophen Acute Liver Injury

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

The 13 C-methacetin breath test (MBT) is a noninvasive, quantitative hepatic metabolic function test. The aim of this prospective, multicenter study was to determine the utility of initial and serial 13 C-MBT in predicting 21-day outcomes in adults with acute liver failure (ALF) and non-acetaminophen acute liver injury (ALI).

APPROACH AND RESULTS

The 13 C-MBT BreathID device (Exalenz Biosciences, Ltd.) provided the percent dose recovery (PDR) for a duration of 60 minutes after administration of 13 C-methacetin solution as the change in exhaled 13 CO2 /12 CO2 compared with pre-ingestion ratio on study days 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7. Results were correlated with 21-day transplant-free survival and other prognostic indices. A total of 280 subjects were screened for enrollment between May 2016 and August 2019. Median age of the 62 enrolled patients with adequate data was 43 years, 79% were Caucasian, 76% had ALF with the remaining 24% having ALI. The mean PDR peak on day 1 or day 2 was significantly lower in nonsurvivors compared with transplant-free survivors (2.3%/hour vs. 9.1%/hour; P < 0.0001). In addition, serial PDR peaks were consistently lower in nonsurvivors versus survivors (P < 0.0001). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of the 13 C-MBT in the combined cohort was 0.88 (95% CI: 0.79-0.97) and higher than that provided by King's College (AUROC = 0.70) and Model for End-Stage Liver Disease scores (AUROC = 0.83). The 13 C-MBT was well tolerated with only two gastrointestinal adverse events reported.

CONCLUSIONS

The 13 C-MBT is a promising tool to estimate the likelihood of hepatic recovery in patients with ALF and ALI. Use of the PDR peak data from the 13 C-MBT point-of-care test may assist with medical decision making and help avoid unnecessary transplantation in critically ill patients with ALF and ALI.

13C Methacetin Breath Test for Assessment of Microsomal Liver Function: Methodology and Clinical Application

Assessment of the liver function, and the need of constant monitoring of the organ's capacity, concerns not only patients with primary liver diseases, but also those at risk of hepatopathies secondary to other chronic diseases. Most commonly, the diagnostics is based on measurements of static biochemical parameters, which allow us to draw conclusions only indirectly about the function and the degree of damage of the organ. On the other hand, liver biopsy is an invasive procedure and therefore it is associated with a considerable risk of complications. Dynamic tests enable us to assess quantitatively the organ's functional reserve by analyzing the kinetics of the metabolization of the substrate by the liver. In practice applied are breath tests using substances such as aminopyrine, caffeine, methacetin, erythromycin (for assessment of the microsomal function); phenylalanine, galactose (for assessment of the cytosolic function); methionine, octanoate, ketoisocaproic acid (for assessment of the mitochondrial function). The test with ¹³C methacetin belongs to the best described and most widely applied methods in noninvasive liver function assessment. Due to the rising availability of this method, knowledge concerning its limitations and controversies regarding the methodology, as well as its usefulness in chosen groups of patients, seems to be vital.

Evaluation of hepatic function with 13C-methacetin breath test in patients with liver cirrhosis

AIM: To investigate the characteristics of the ¹³C-methacetin breath test (¹³C-MBT) as a tool to monitor hepatic function of patients with liver cirrhosis.

METHODS: Forty-two patients with liver cirrhosis and thirty-one age- and sex-matched healthy controls underwent ¹³C-MBT.¹³C-methacetin (75 mg) was given orally, and the levels of ¹³CO₂ delta over baseline (DOB), metabolisation velocity (MV) and cumulative percentage doses (CD) before and 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 80, 100 and 120 min after substrate administration breath samples was determined and compared, by non-dispersive infrared spectrometry.

RESULTS: The ¹³CO₂ peak percent doses of healthy controls, Child class A and Child class B patients were 20.3 ±3.5%, 7.5±1.8% or 6.5±3.3% and 4.5±1.3%, and occurred at 20 min, 20 or 80 min and 40 min, respectively. The differences of¹³CO₂ peak percent doses among healthy controls, Child class A and Child class B patients were obvious (P <0.05). No ¹³CO₂peak percent doses occurred in Child class C patients. The differences of ¹³CO₂ peak metabolic velocity were obvious (P <0.05) between healthy controls (28.8±5.3%) and Child class A patients (9.4±2.4%). No ¹³CO₂ peak metabolic velocity occurred in Child class B and Child class C patients. The ¹³CO₂ cumulative percentage doses of healthy controls, Child class A , Child class B and Child class C patients at 120 min after substrate administration were 31.2±4.5%, 13.8±3.7%, 8.2±2.2% and 2.4±0.8% (P <0.05), respectively.

CONCLUSION: The severity of liver damage can be directly and effectively evaluated by ¹³C-MBT in patients with cirrhosis.