[Analysis of pancreatic function. Determination of fecal chymotrypsin and the secretin-pancreozymin test. Comparative study].

Fecal chymotrypsin determination and secretin-pancreozymin test with volume-loss corrected were carried out intra-individually on 57 clinically normal test subjects and 51 patients with chronic pancreatic disease. A good correlation could be established in every case between the chymotrypsin activity in stool and the chymotrypsin output in the duodenal aspirate. False-positive chymotrypsin activity was not to be found in healthy subjects. On the other hand, however, the chymotrypsin activity in stool compared with the result of the secretin-pancreozymin test was found to be false negative in 21% of all patients with chronic pancreatic disease (some or all parameters pathological). In patients with a clear deficiency in the exocrine function of pancreas (all parameters pathological) the chymotrypsin activity was nevertheless seen to be false-negative in only 9.9% of the cases. Thus the fecal chymotrypsin determination can be used as screening test for the clearly reduced pancreatic exocrine insufficiency.