Symptomatic patients with endoscopicaily verified reflux oesophagitis were randomised to a double blind trial in which they received either omeprazole (20 mg once daily) or cimetidine (400 mg four times daily) for four, and if necessary, eight weeks. In an 'intention to treat' analysis, oesophagitis was found to have healed after four weeks in 77 of 137 (56%)

SUMMARY Experiments on dogs and rats showed that synthetic human gastrin I was inactivated in the small bowel but not in the liver, whereas pentagastrin was rapidly inactivated by the liver. Similar results were obtained with tissue homogenates. The significance of these results is discussed in relation to the probably increased incidence of peptic ulceration following extensive small-bowel resection in man.The physiological and pharmacological actions of the hormone gastrin and of its synthetic analogue pentagastrin1 have been extensively studied. Gastrin may be involved in the causation ofpeptic ulceration, and pentagastrin is now widely used as a gastric stimulant in tests of acid secretion, but little is known of the fate of either compound in the body. Since the blood concentration of a hormone or a drug depends on its rate of removal from the circulation as well as the rate at which it enters the circulation, it is important to study the fate of active substances in the body. For example, excessive levels of gastrin might be present in the blood even though the antrum secreted normal amounts; this could occur if the mechanism for removing gastrin were impaired. We have therefore devised experiments to investigate the inactivation of gastrin and pentagastrin by the liver and small bowel. In choosing to study the fate of these compounds in the portal circulation we were guided by the concept originally proposed by Elliott (1905) that hormones disappear in the tissues they excite. The experiments were performed on anaesthetized dogs and rats, and in vitro with homogenates of rat liver and small bowel mucosa. Methods EXPERIMENTS IN DOGSTen adult mongrel dogs weighing 6-16 kg were anaesthetized with intravenous pentobarbitone (25 mg/kg body weight), and mechanically respired. In all the dogs wide bore cannulae were placed in the 1Peptavlon, ICI Ltd.Received for publication 16 March 1971. pyloric antrum and the fundus of the stomach. Ligatures were tied around the pylorus and the oesophagus, care being taken in the latter case to exclude the vagi. During experiments the dog lay on its left side and the cannulae were placed so that fluid introduced into the pyloric cannula drained by gravity through the stomach and was all recovered from the fundal cannula. Fine

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Temperley. J . M . & Stagg, B. H . 1971. Bioassay and Radioimmunoassay of Plasma Gastrin in a Case of Zollinger-Ellison Syndrome. Scurid. 5. Gustrocrii.Fasting plasma gastrin levels were measured i n a patient with the Zollinger-Ellison syndrome by both bioassay and radioimmunoassay. The level remained constant follouing total gastrectomy, but fell sharply follo\iing parathyroidectomy. Although the bioassay gave gastrin levels which were consistently 2 t o 3 times higher than those obtained by radioimmunoassay. the values shelved a similar trend. H a \ ever, both methods gave almost identical results for the gastrin contents of antral mucosa and pancreatic tumour samples from the patient. It is suggested that biologically active gastrin-like substances not detectable by radioimmunoassay were present in the patient's plasma. .siry Collc~gc~ Hospiiul Mcdicul Sclrool, Lottdori, W . C. I E 655, Euglorid 6 . 735-738. Scand J Gastroenterol Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by McMaster University on 11/18/14 For personal use only. 9. Trudeau, W. L. & McGuigan, J. E. 1970. Serum gastrin levels in patients with peptic ulcer disease. Gasrrorrirrrology 59, 6-12. Scand J Gastroenterol Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by McMaster University on 11/18/14For personal use only.

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