Abstract
Vitamin B_<12> content of liver in patients with chronic hepatic diseases, including cirrhosis of the liver, Banti's syndrome and hepatoma, etc. was determined by microbiological assay. The liver tissue tested was obtained at laparotomy from the patients with or without a parenteral administration of various amounts of vitamin B_<12>. The average vitamin B_<12> values obtained were 0.19 and 0.25 μg/g on a wet basis in cirrhosis, 0.53 and 0.58 μg/g in Banti's syndrome, with and without the administration of vitamin B_<12> respectively, and 0.13 μg/g in hepatoma without the administration. The liver vitamin B_<12> content in cirrhosis and hepatoma was much lower than that of normal liver tissue, 0.74 μg/g. In most cases of cirrhosis an increase of liver vitamin B_<12> content was not observed even after parenteral vitamin B_<12> administration. Liver vitamin B_<12> content in cirrhosis and Banti's syndrome decreased remarkably after the operation of porta-caval anastomosis. This decrease seemed to occur within two weeks after the operation. The higher vitamin B_<12> content of liver tissue before the operation was, the higher the decrease seemed to be.
