Lymphcyte Stimulation Test in Halothane induced hepatic injury and its clinical observation

Abstract

Stimulation of lymphocytes, as measured by incorporation of tritiated uridine into the ribonucleic acid of lymphocytes during the culture for 24-hour, were performed in patients with hepatic injury occurring after halothane anesthesia.
Fourteen patients showed positive to halothane. Nine patients were injured after a single exposure, four patients after two or three exposure and one was an anesthetist.
The interval between halothane exposure and onset of hepatic injury ranged from 8 to 22 days with an average of 14 days in a single exposure, and from 3 to 12 days with an average of 6 days in a multiple exposure group.
A transient elevation of fever after exposure was characteristic in these cases. Eosinophilia was observed in 40 percent of blood counts in survived cases and in 14 percent in fatal cases.
Liver function tests and histological findings of liver tissur were not able to be distinguished from those of viral hepatitis.
The mortality was 50 percent in a multiple exposure group and 11 percent in a single exposure group.
It is strongly suggested that the cellular immunity is involved in the role of immune processes in the pathogenesis of halothane induced hepatic injury.