Availability of plasma pancreatic polypeptide measurement in diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis.

Plasma pancreatic polypeptide (PP), a newly recognized pancreatic hormone, was studied in healthy subjects and patients with chronic pancreatitis. After an oral load of 50 g of meat extract, the plasma concentration of PP showed a rapid fourfold rise at 20 min in healthy controls. In contrast, the plasma PP level rose only 1.8-fold in patients with chronic pancreatitis. This difference was statistically significant (P less than 0.05). The increase rate of the PP level during the test in each subject correlated significantly (P less than 0.01) with total amylase output and maximal amylase concentration measured by the pancreozymin-secretin test. Thus, it is suggested that the measurement of the plasma PP level may be a useful tool to diagnose chronic pancreatitis.