Response to Duodenal Acidification in Man

Abstract

The patterns of gastric emptying of an acid load, or of saline during acid perfusion through the duodenum, have been investigated in healthy subjects and in patients with disease of the upper alimentary tract. The gastric emptying of patients with gastric ulcer was normal. Patients with duodenal ulcer showed either a reversal of the normal pattern with increase in the rate of gastric emptying during duodenal acidification or accentuation of the normal slowing of gastric emptying by acid in the duodenum, like patients with achlorhydria. The latter type of response may prove useful in predicting which patients with duodenal ulcer are likely to develop the clinical syndrome of ‘pyloric stenosis’.