Reserve capacity of bicarbonate secretion in chronic pancreatitis.

When secretin was given by continuous intravenous infusion in the control subjects, the dose of secretin inducing maximal bicarbonate output was found to be around 6.0 CHR U/kg/hr. Then the pancreatic exocrine secretory response to sequential standard (1.2 CHR U/kg/hr) and augmented (6.0 CHR U/kg/hr) dose of secretin was studied in the controls, in patients with chronic pancreatitis and in its suspected cases. This new method for exocrine pancreatic function did not offer advantage for the diagnosis of well established chronic pancreatitis. But from the results obtained in suspected chronic pancreatitis it was supposed that the decline of increasing rate of bicarbonate output with augmentation of dose and the decrease of response to augmented dose of secretin might be one of functional disorders occurred in the early stage of chronic pancreatitis.