TABLE 8.

Comparison of median primary and secondary bile acid levels obtained by three different methods

	HPLC (Method A without Hydrolysis) (μmol/g)			HPLC (Method B with Hydrolysis) (μmol/g)			LC/MS (μmol/g)			GC/MS (μmol/g)
	Ct	Erly	Adv	Ct	Erly	Adv	Ct	Erly	Adv	Ct	Erly	Adv
Totala	6.61	3.81	1.14	8.51	7.16	1.90	4.47	4.50	1.05	4.77	3.53	0.85
Primary bile acids
CA	0.00	0.00	0.24	0.00	0.00	0.62	0.01	0.01	0.17	0.03	0.04	0.12
CDCA	0.00	0.04	0.15b	0.00	0.16	0.35b	0.00	0.02	0.17b	0.01	0.03	0.16b
CA + CDCA	0.00	0.11	0.54b	0.00	0.18	0.95b	0.02	0.03	0.54b	0.04	0.05	0.49b
Secondary bile acids
DCA	3.84	0.89	0.08b	4.18	1.75	0.21b	1.88	1.05	0.02b	3.25	1.27	0.01b
LCA	1.46	0.78	0.00b	2.07	2.50	0.00b	1.48	0.91	0.01b	0.31	0.17	0.02b
DCA + LCA	5.64	2.22	0.16b	7.21	4.06	0.32b	3.51	2.88	0.04b	4.25	2.29	0.03b
Ratios of primary and secondary bile acids
DCA/CA	—	0.55	0.00b	—	0.79	0.03b	116.49	13.17	0.05b	111.48	27.52	3.47b
LCA/CDCA	10.29	5.41	0.00b	12.93	7.63	0.00b	16.74	4.12	0.01b	15.81	7.84	0.26b
DCA + LCA/CA + CDCA	48.62	17.30	0.01b	58.12	14.59	0.04b	149.91	14.41	0.04b	77.04	29.65	0.05b

Total bile acids, total and individual secondary bile acids, and secondary/primary bile acid ratios were significantly lower while total primary bile acids especially CDCA were significantly higher in advanced cirrhosis compared with the rest of the groups using all three methods. CA levels were not different between groups using any of the techniques.

^aTotal bile acid concentrations compared are subtotal concentrations in Tables 4–7.

^bP < 0.05 using Kruskal Wallis test.