Galactose tolerance test of liver function in pulmonary heart disease.

A study of the liver function in pulmonary heart disease (Thomas, Rees, and Saunders, 1965) suggested that galactose was not metabolized normally by the liver, and so the galactose tolerance test was frequently abnormal. The results suggested that the galactose tolerance test could be abnormal before signs of clinical heart failure appeared. It seemed either that hypoxia was a factor causing disordered liver function or that hepatic congestion was present in advance of the other signs of cardiac failure. The earlier work further suggested that the galactose tolerance test was abnormal in chronic bronchitis without clinical heart failure. There was some support for this latter suggestion in an earlier observation that a palpable tender liver margin could be present in chronic pulmonary disease without other signs of congestive heart failure (Thomas, 1948). To study this problem further the galactose tolerance has been measured in 50 patients with chronic bronchitis and 25 patients with asthma. Lung fimction tests and electrocardiograms were recorded in all, oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in most, and right heart pressures in 19 patients. Galactose enzyme studies have been made in 38 patients.