STUDIES ON CHANGES OF PHYSIOLOGICAL FUNCTION IN HIGH ALTITUDE

REPORT 2. ON LIVER FUNCTION IN HIGH ALTITUDE

Abstract

The examination was carried out to study the influence of hypoxemic stress on liver function in high altitude in 26 healthy subjects who, climbing Mt. Norikura, 2740 metres above the sea-level, on a 4 hours bus-trip, stayed there for several days.
The standard laboratory tests used for test of liver function were estimation of serum bilirubin, urinary urobilinogen, BSP and Azorubin S test, hippuric acid synthesis, flocculation tests (CCFT, TTT, Kunkel' T and Phenol test) and serum protein proportion, A/G ratio by Biuret and electrophoresis. Subjective complaints were also observed during the period.
The results are as follows:
1) Some disturbances of liver functions were perceived in many cases, especially by the tests such as BSP and Azorubin S, urinary urobilinogen excretion, and HAS and CCFT, for the first week after their climbing, and the results obtained, however, were not strictly parallel in every case. The disorder of these partial liver functions recovered itself to the normal level on the tenth day as a whole.
2) The other laboratory tests remained normal.
3) Similarity was found out between subjective complaints of the subjects tested in high altitude and those of potential liver-diseased patients. The time for such subjective symptoms to reveal themselves was in complete agreement with the time when the liver was slightly damaged as stated in the above-mentioned (1).
4) The climbing to high altitude, that is, hypoxemic stress did the liver-diseased patients much more harm to their livers than the healthy subject.
5) BSP and urobilinogen excretion in high altitude, together with circulating eosinophils and urinary 17-ketosteroid excretion, showed similar changes, it is inferred, with that of ACTH therapy to patients without any liver disorder.