Secretin Tests of Pancreatic and Biliary Tract Disease

Abstract

The use of secretin for testing pancreatic function dates back to the work of Chiray in 1926.¹ Since then the diagnostic value of the "secretin test"^* has been repeatedly demonstrated, especially by the extensive work of Dreiling.² One of the main objections to the use of secretin was removed with the preparation of highly purified secretin by Jorpes and Mutt,³ now obtainable commercially from the Vitrum Company in Stockholm, Sweden. The Swedish secretin has a potency about 1,000 times as great as previously available preparations and has not caused any serious side reactions. Jorpes and Mutt have also prepared highly purified cholecystokinin which, in addition to its effects on gallbladder evacuation, stimulates pancreatic enzyme production and thus contains the hormone pancreozymin. Cholecystokinin-pancreozymin, too, is available commercially from the Vitrum Company under the trade name Cecekin. Sun and Shay⁴ and Burton et al⁵ have reported on the combined use of secretin