Abstract
Electrophoretic analysis of sera, liver biopsy and Sato's modified bromsulfalein test were carried out simultaneously upon the sick children, from whom were excluded those who were positive to the ordinary bromsulfalein test in which the dye was injected in an amount of 5mg.per kg. of body weight.
According to the relations among electrophoretic pattern, liver biopsy findings and Sato's bromsulfalein test, all the cases examined were divided into 5 groups (Groups A, B, C, D, and E); Groups A and B included the negative cases to Sato's test and Groups C, D and E included the cases positive to Sato's test; histopathological changes in the livers were revealed by a needle biopsy in Groups B, D and E, and not in Groups A and C.
Histopathological changes in the biopsied livers seemed to be more frequently found in the cases positive to Sato's test (Groups C, D, and E) than in the negative cases (Groups A and B), and pathological changes of cytoplasm with fibrosis were found only in the cases with positive response to Sato's test (Group E).
Irrespective of response to Sato's bromsulfalein test and histopathological findings of the biopsied liver, a significant increase in the averages of alpha and beta globulins was found in almost all groups (Groups A, B, C, D and E) and this finding may be partly ascribed to the fact that not a few cases with clear symptoms of nutritional dystrophy were included in the patients subjected to the present investigation.
The ‘abnormal’ electrophoretic pattern characterized by an increase in gamma globulin accompanied by a decrease in albumin was found in the cases which were positive to Sato's test and, in addition, showed histopathological changes of cytoplasm with fibrosis, in the biopsied livers (Group E).
A tendency toward an increase of gamma globulin as well as a decrease of albumin seemed to be very marked in the cases with histopathological changes in the biopsied livers and in those with positive response to Sato's bromsulfalein test as compared with those without pathological changes in the livers or with negative response to Sato's test.
