Abstract:Objective:To investigate the significance of hepatocellular apoptosis in evaluation of liver reserve function.Methods:Analsis of 54 cases who underwent partial hepatectomy, including 10 cases of hemangioma of liver (control group), and 44 cases of hepatopathy (32 cases of liver cancer and 12 cases of intrahepatic bile duct stone, hepatopathy group), including 24 cases of liver cirrhosis(cirrhosis group)and 20 cases with no liver cirrhosis (non-cirrhosis group) . At operation, liver tissue was taken for determination of cirrhosis and apoptosis. In cirrhosis group, 2 groups were divided according to the 95% confidence interval of apoptosis indexes（ AI<0.0381 group，AI≥0.0381 group）. Cirrhosis and the degree of recovery of hepatic functions at postoperation were analysed and compared with hepatocellular AI.Results:AI in the hepatopathy groups were significantly higher than control group(P=0.000), AI in the cirrhosis groups(0.046±0.022) were significantly higher than non-cirrhosis groups(0.0267±0.021) (P<0.05). The accuracy rate of AI for predecting the liver reserve function was 79.55%, and was significantly higher than that of Child class（P=0.05）. Conclusions:AI of hepatic cells could serve as a sensitive indicator of hepatic function imparment, and can be for predicting change of liver function and liver reserve function.