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SUMMARYThe uptake of 75Se Selenomethionine by the pancreas has been evaluated in 102 patients and compared with the secretin-pancreozymin test of pancreatic function. In groups of patients with chronic pancreatitis and cancer of the pancreas abnormal scans closely parallel the diminished exocrine secretion, especially bicarbonate output, following a submaximal dose of secretin. Thirty per cent of the group with no pancreatic abnormality have abnormal scans, though the secretinpancreozymin test is normal. Though a normal scan excludes the presence of chronic pancreatitis and cancer of the pancreas with a probability greater than 90%, an abnormal scan is found so frequently in normal subjects that it does not provide a reliable index of impaired pancreatic function.In the decade since Blau and Bender (1962) introduced ThSe Selenomethionine to scan the pancreas, numerous reports have confirmed its use in delineating the structure and position of the pancreas (Sodee, 1966;Centi Colella and Pigorini, 1967;Melmed, Agnew, and Bouchier, 1968). The evidence that the scan also reflects pancreatic function rests on three studies. The first was confined to 19 diabetics (Lahdevirta, 1967); the second showed good general agreement between pancreatic function assessed by a secretin-pancreozymin test and 76Se Selenomethionine scans in 20 patients, though no details of the functional test were provided (Brown, Sircus, Smith, Donaldson, Dymock, Falconer, and Small, 1968); and the third compared duodenal tryptic activity following a Lundh-Borgstrom meal with 7"Se Selenomethionine scans of the pancreas in 54 subjects (McCarthy and Brown, 1969