Secretory studies in whole stomachs

Summary and conclusion

An attempt was made to apply the dilution indicator technique with phenol red to fractional gastric analysis in man, using various test-meals. When correction was made for dilution of the parietal cell secretion by the test-meal, it was found that a significant number of observations yielded corrected values for both total acid and total chloride which were well above 165 mN. Several of these corrected chloride values were even greater than three times the isotonic concentration (i.e., 495 mN). Similar values have been noted by Wilhelmj and his co-workers in their experiments with dogs. Since in dogs it is known that the parietal cell secretion is isotonic with blood and tissue fluids, and all evidence points to the same situation in man, we feel that the hypertonic corrected values for acidity and total chloride may be the result of water absorption from the stomach. This circumstance, and the fact that the degree of water absorption is unpredictable, introduce an error into the dilution indicator technique which we do not yet know how to eliminate. These facts render clinical application of the dilution indicator technique of doubtful value at the present time, and further investigation is now being carried on with dogs in an effort to establish the source of these abnormally high values and, if possible, to find a way of correcting the errors resulting from their occurrence.