Summary
Brocresine, an inhibitor of histidine decarboxylase activity, was given to 2 patients with Zollinger-Ellison syndrome. In Patient 1, during a short period of study, there appeared to be a reduction in gastric acid secretion, manifested primarily by a decrease in the volume of secretion. In Patient 2, during a longer period of brocresine treatment, there was significant reduction in both concentration and output of acid but no significant change in the acid secretory response to administered histamine. These findings, though inconclusive, are consistent with the hypothesis that histamine may serve as the chemical mediator of the effect of gastrin on gastric acid secretion in man. In each patient there was marked relief of diarrhea which antedated any detectable effect of brocresine on gastric acid secretion. This finding was not anticipated and its mechanism is unexplained. It suggests that in patients with Zollinger-Ellison syndrome, diarrhea may occur as a result of factors other than gastric acid hypersecretion.
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Supported in part by Grants CA-08341, GM-13016, FR-125 and AM-5156 from the NIH, US Public Health Service, and by Grant T-443 from the American Cancer Society.
The authors thank Miss Doris Watts and Mrs. Judy Chmiel for expert technical assistance; Dr. James E. McGuigan, Washington University School of Medicine, for performing the radioimmunoassay for gastrin on Patient 2; and Lederle Research Laboratories, Pearl River, NY, for providing brocresine and matched placebo capsules.
Preliminary accounts of this work have been published in Clin Research 16:287, 1968, and Fed Proc 27:1341, 1968.
Merck International Fellow in Clinical Pharmacology
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Levine, R.J., Vaidya, A.B., Shearman, D.J.C. et al. Effects of brocresine on zollinger-ellison syndrome report of 2 cases. Digest Dis Sci 15, 477–484 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02283878
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02283878