Serum gastrin levels in hypertrophic pyloric stenosis of infancy. Response to a gastrin secretion test.

The aim of this study was to look for a difference in fasting serum gastrin levels or in serum gastrin response to oral feeding between infants with hypertrophic pyloric stenosis and normal controls. Fasting serum gastrin levels were measured by radioimmunoassay in 10 patients with pyloric stenosis, before pyloromyotomy and 7 and 15 days after it, and in 11 controls. In addition, the serum gastrin responses to a casein hydrolysate meal were studied in both groups (in the patients, 7 days after operation). The fasting serum gastrin levels in the patients did not differ from those in the controls before operation, but they did so after it. The serum gastrin response to feeding in patients after pyloromyotomy was no greater than in controls.