Gastric H⁺ and Pepsin Secretion in Gastritis

Abstract

Burhol, P. G., Berstad, A. & Myren, J. 1973. Gastric H* and Pepsin Secretion in Gastritis. Scand. J. Gastroent. 8, 265-271.

Suction biopsies were obtained from the fundus or the body of the stomach, and gastric juice aspirated continuously for 1 hour before and 1 hour after subcutaneous injection of histamine in a dose of 30 μg base/kg body wt in each of 50 patients with dyspeptic complaints. The age tended to increase with increasing gastritic changes. Gastritis not only reduces but also delays the gastric H⁺ and pepsin responses to histamine, so that a subcutaneous histamine test may be of value in the diagnosis of atrophic gastritis. The H* secretion appeared to fail before the pepsin secretion in the subjects with atrophic gastritis, but not in those with superficial gastritis. It is suggested that the gastric secretion in the patients with atrophic gastritis may be subject to sustained gastrin stimulation, not present in the others with a higher gastric H⁺ secretion.

Key-words::

• Gastric biopsy
• gastritis
• histamine
• H⁺ and pepsin