Hypergastrinemia, gastric endocrine cell hyperplasia, and intractable diarrhea.

A patient with pernicious anemia developed severe intractable diarrhea night and day. Investigation revealed chronic atrophic gastritis and a markedly elevated level of serum gastrin. No obvious explantation for the diarrhea was found, but after antrectomy, the gastrin level returned to normal and the diarrhea subsided.

Use of secretin in the roentgenologic and biochemical diagnosis of duodenal gastrinoma.

The use of secretin in the biochemical and roentgenologic diagnoses of a duodenal gastrinoma has been described. Preoperatively, the secretin test indicated that a gastrinoma and not a retained antrum was the cause of hypergastrinemia in a patient who had previously undergone Billroth II gastrectomy. Intravenous infusion of secretin during selective angiography resulted in greatly enhanced visualization of the tumor which allowed it to be localized to the duodenal stump.