Flow Rate and Composition of Thoracic-Duct Lymph in Patients with Cirrhosis

IN the 1908 Christian Herter Lectures at Bellevue Hospital, Starling1 emphasized the important influence of changes in hepatic interstitial-fluid formation on flow and composition of thoracic-duct lymph. More recently, alterations in both hepatic and thoracic-duct lymph have been demonstrated in experimentally produced liver disease in animals.2 3 4 In patients with hepatic cirrhosis formation of interstitial fluid in the liver is also considered to be abnormal and associated with recognized changes in the transport of water, electrolytes and large molecules across capillary membranes.5 , 6 Thoracic-duct lymph from human patients, however, has not been studied as that from animals with experimentally produced liver disease. . . .