Quantitative Determination of Conjugated Bile Acids in Serum in Acute Hepatitis

LITTLE information is available about the variation in concentration of bile acid in serum in health and disease. This is mainly a result of methodological difficulties which result from the solubility of bile acids which closely resembles that of other lipids. Serum extracts prepared according to previous techniques often contain small quantities of lipid material which cause errors in the assay of bile acids 1 . Attempts to separate these interfering substances are often associated with considerable losses of bile acids. These difficulties explain discrepancies in values for the concentration of normal bile acid in serum which have been reported to range between 0 and 60 mg/ml. 2 .