Prolonged treatment of menetrier's disease with an oral anticholinergic drug.

There is considerable evidence, both in patients with Menetrier's disease and from animal models of protein-losing gastropathy, that antisecretory drugs can acutely decrease or abolish gastric plasma protein shedding. Serial measurements on serum protein components were performed in a patient with Menetrier's disease before, during, and after long term treatment with propantheline bromide. Total serum protein concentration increased significantly during the treatment period from 4.3 +/- 0.50 to 5.9 +/- 0.55 g per dl during treatment, while albumin increased from a pretreatment value of 2.5 +/- 0.12 to 3.4 +/- 0.16 g per dl. The improvement in serum proteins and symptoms continued after therapy was stopped. Intensive anticholinergic drug therapy should be tried in this disease before resorting to gastrectomy.