Follow-up of exocrine pancreatic function in type-1 diabetes mellitus.

In a previous study, mild to moderate exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, as measured by the secretin-pancreozymin test, was found in 23 (43%) of 53 patients with type-1 diabetes mellitus. Of these 53 patients, 20 (7 of whom initially had an abnormal secretin-pancreozymin test) were available for a follow-up examination 11 years later. Of the 7 patients with abnormal exocrine pancreatic function at the first test, 5 remained abnormal and 2 became normal, whereas of the 13 patients with initially normal pancreatic function the test result remained normal in 11 patients and became abnormal in 2.