I have just become aware of this group and would like to mention the possibility of a congenital liver shunt. It appears that it is possible to have this and not be ill. There is an article regarding trimethylaminuria and congenital portosystemic shunt under NIH PubMed. Also, there is an article in PubMed with regard to foetor hepaticus and secondary trimethylaminuria. I am not able to come up with much more information on these topics but I did find a statement in an article that foeter hepaticus is caused by the shunting of blood.