The present disclosure concerns methods of administering and detecting a distinguishable agent in a sample from and assessing the condition of an organ in a subject. In a particular embodiment, the present invention concerns methods of detecting and comparing the cholate shunt, in a subject, preferably in a subject with chronic hepatitis C. In certain embodiments, the methods may comprise obtaining a sample from a subject such as a blood or saliva sample after administering an oral and intravenous dose of a distinguishable agent such as cholate and analyzing the sample clearance of the distinguishable agent from the subject and comparing the clearance levels in order to assess hepatic health. In another embodiment, the methods may comprise analyzing a sample from a subject for the presence of a distinguishable agent such as cholate and applying information obtained from analyzing the presence of the distinguishable agent to determine a treatment for a medical condition of the subject.