Lactoferrin in the duodenal juice of patients with chronic calcifying pancreatitis.

We have shown the presence of lactoferrin in the pancreatic juice of patients with chronic calcifying pancreatitis (CCP) and its absence in controls. In this work, lactoferrin has been found in saliva, but neither in gastric juice nor in bile. Therefore, a technique for collecting the human duodenal juice with a rubber tube and preventing its contamination with saliva is described. In the duodenal juice of 15 patients with CCP, 52 controls without evident pancreatic diseases, and 9 cases of pancreatic diseases other than CCP, lactoferrin has been searched for by immunological methods before and after an intravenous injection of CCK-PZ (3 U CHR) + secretin ( C U). The lactoferrin test in positive in 5, inconclusive in 6, and negative in 41 cases, and in the 9 cases of non-CCP pancreatic diseases it is negative. The use of this test in the diagnosis of CCP is proposed.