Is there a relationship between gastric acid secretion and plasma catecholamines in duodenal ulcer disease?

Plasma adrenaline, noradrenaline and dopamine concentrations have been analyzed in three different groups of duodenal ulcer (DU) patients under various regimens of acid reduction in an attempt to find out if acidity per se has any influence on plasma catecholamine concentrations. Treatment with cimetidine in patients with asymptomatic chronic DU disease, reduced gastric acidity to the same level as after highly selective vagotomy (HSV), but increased plasma noradrenaline concentrations insignificantly. In a group of DU patients subjected to HSV, plasma noradrenaline levels were significantly higher 1 year after surgery than 6 weeks thereafter despite the fact that the basal acid output was the same. In a third group of DU patients, plasma noradrenaline and dopamine levels were found to be 20% higher during the active, untreated ulceration than after 4 weeks of ranitidine treatment when the ulcer had healed. It is concluded that the elevated plasma noradrenaline levels found in DU patients are not caused by the hypersecretion of acid per se, nor does there seem to be any general correlation between acidity and the catecholamine levels in peripheral plasma.