Urinary PABA recovery after oral N-benzoyl-L-tyrosyl-PABA administration combined with various exocrine pancreatic stimulants.

Eleven healthy volunteers (C) and nine patients affected by chronic relapsing pancreatitis (CP) were administered N-Benzoyl-L-Tyrosyl-PABA orally, at a dose of 150 mg combined, on different days, with: 1) water alone (schedule a); 2) Lundh meal (schedule b); 3) Secretin-Caerulein by i.v. infusion (0.5 CU/kg/hr and 75 ng/kg/hr respectively) (schedule c); 4) Caerulein by i.m. injection (300 ng/kg) (schedule d). The mean urinary PABA recovery in CP was lower than in C with all the schedules, but this was statistically significant only with schedules a and c (P less than 0.02 and P less than 0.05 respectively). With respect to b, c, and d, the mean urinary PABA recovery seemed to increase both in C and in CP as compared with schedule a, but only in the CP group with schedule b was the increase statistically significant (P less than 0.05). The present data show that the exocrine pancreatic stimulants do not improve the reliability of the PABA test.