Pancreatic polypeptide response in patients with chronic pancreatitis.

We studied the plasma pancreatic polypeptide (PP) response to a meal in patients with pancreatitis and attempted to correlate the PP increment with the degree of pancreatic exocrine insufficiency. Control subjects and patients with recurrent pancreatitis showed significant mean increase (P less than 0.05) in plasma PP concentration in response to food. By contrast chronic pancreatitis patients had no significant increase in plasma PP. However, some subjects with normal pancreatic had no response and some patients with chronic pancreatitis did show a response. In addition, no correlation was observed between the PP response and pancreatic exocrine secretion. We conclude that the PP response to a meal has only limited value in the detection of pancreatic destruction.