Comparison of Trimethadione Tolerance Test and Child-Pugh Score in Patients with Liver Cirrhosis

Mitsuhiro Matsuda, Akio Ishikawa, Katsuhisa Tsuji, Akira Osada, Yuji Yamamoto, Masaaki Ohtsuka, Takeshi Todoroki, Katashi Fukao, Einosuke Tanaka*

Department of Surgery, Institute of Clinical Medicine and Institute of Community Medicine*, University of Tsukuba

In this study, we examined the relationship between the trimethadione (TMO) tolerance test and the Child-Pugh score in patients with liver cirrhosis to determine if there is an advantage of the TMO tolerance test. The TMO tolerance test is based on the serum dimethadione (DMO)/TMO ratio (DMO is the only metabolite of TMO) 4 hours after oral administration of TMO. The DMO/TMO ratios were 0.33±0.07 in group A of the Child-Pough score, 0.26±0.10 in group B and 0.11±0.06 in group C. These defferences reached statistical significance (p<0.005). There was a significant correlation (r=-0.186, p<0.0001) between the serum DMO/TMO ratio and the Pugh score. These data show that the TMO tolerance test is as useful for assessing the severity of liver cirrhosis as the Child-Pugh score.

Key words
trimethadione tolerance test, cytochrome P450, liver function test, Child-Pugh score, liver cirrhosis

Reprint requests
Akio Ishikawa Department of Surgery, Institute of Clinical Medicine, and University of Tsukuba
1-1-1 Tennoudai, Tsukuba-shi, 305 JAPAN

Accepted
September 9, 1997

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