Liquid chromatography-mass spectroscopy in the diagnosis of biliary atresia in children with hyperbilirubinemia

Abstract

Background: Biliary atresia (BA) is difficult to distinguish from other causes of cholestasis. We evaluated the use of liquid chromatography-mass spectroscopy (LC-MS) and bile acid profiles in the rapid, noninvasive diagnosis of BA.

Materials and methods: Following Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee and Institutional Review Board approval, we used LC-MS to measure 26 bile acids in serum and stool samples from experimental models of BA and in urine, stool, and serum samples from non-cholestatic and cholestatic human infants.

Results: We first evaluated the utility of LC-MS to distinguish bile acid profiles between sham, bile duct ligation, and 3,5-diethoxycarbonyl-1,4-dihydrocollidine mouse models of BA. Serum bile acids were significantly higher and stool bile acids were significantly lower in experimental BA. Next, we evaluated samples from non-cholestatic, cholestatic non-BA, and BA infants. There was no significant difference between cholestatic non-BA and BA stool and urine samples. However, primary bile acids were significantly higher in BA versus cholestatic non-BA samples (128.1 ± 14.2 versus 61.2 ± 20.5 μM). In addition, the primary, conjugated bile acids glycochenodeoxycholic acid and taurochenodeoxycholic acid were significantly elevated in BA compared with cholestatic non-BA serum samples. Using a receiver operating characteristic curve, we found that a serum glycochenodeoxycholic acid concentration of 30 μM had a sensitivity of 100%, specificity of 83.3%, positive predictive value of 88.9%, and negative predictive value of 100% in the diagnosis of BA.

Conclusions: Our data indicate that bile acid patterns can be used to distinguish experimental and human BA from non-cholestatic and, more importantly, cholestatic disease. This suggests that LC-MS may be useful in the accurate, rapid, and non-invasive diagnosis of BA.

Keywords: Bile acids; Biliary atresia; Cholestasis; Liquid chromatography–mass spectroscopy.