Introduction: Mortality from ingestion of the mushroom Amanita phalloides still remains as high as 8-10%. In critical patients, liver dialysis can bridge the patient to liver transplantation, which may be a lifesaving procedure. We report the use of 13C-methacetin breath test (13C-MBT) in monitoring hepatic function in a case of A. phalloides poisoning.
Case report: A 33-year-old woman ate mushrooms that she had picked. After 8 h, she developed nausea and vomiting, abdominal cramps, and diarrhea, which lasted for another 24 h. On the third day, features of liver injury were seen. Pharmacologic therapy failed and she underwent liver dialysis on days 4 and 5. A 13C-MBT was used to evaluate hepatic functional reserve before the first and after the second dialysis. A liver transplantation on day 6 was successful.
Discussion: The breath test results showed that at 40 min after substrate ingestion the mean 13C-MBT cumulative oxidation percentage was 10.5 +/- 3.8% in healthy controls, whereas in our patient this parameter decreased from 0.09% on the fourth day to 0.02% on the fifth day.
Conclusions: 13C-MBT is a simple, non-invasive diagnostic tool which may be useful as a predictor of outcome and as a marker of the severity of liver damage.