Sialic acid secretion of patients with gastric and duodenal ulcers in the dose-response pentastrin test.

The secretion of HCl and sialic acid into the gastric juice was investigated in 13 patients with gastric, 52 with duodenal ulcers and 27 control patients, during the dose-response pentagastrin test. The basal output of sialic acid was clearly highest in patients with gastric ulcers, and the differences between these and other groups of patients were significant. During pentagastrin stimulation a significant initial decrease was found in patients with gastric ulcers with small doses, and the minimum was reached with a dose of 0.1 micrograms/kg/h. After increasing the dose, an increase in sialic acid output occurred in all groups, reaching its maximum with a pentagastrin infusion rate of 1.0 micrograms/kg/h. The basal concentration of sialic acid was also highest in patients with gastric ulcers. In all groups the concentration decreased during the stimulation, which obviously depended on the sialic output not increasing in the same relationship as the volume of gastric secretion.