No abstract

Five patients, all suffering severe abdominal pain in acute intermittent porphyria, were admitted to an investigation of the analgesic effect of Fortral (pentazocine) in this condition. A single dose of Fortral was given daily to each patient at the time of severe abdominal pain and an attempt was made to use the smallest possible dose to achieve an analgesic effect. The analgesic effect produced was considered good in two cases and excellent in the remaining three cases. Pain ceased or decreased to a great extent within ten to twenty minutes of administration of Fortral. The drug appeared to act as rapidly when given orally as when given by intramuscular injection. The analgesic effect persisted from two to six hours, with an average of four hours. In the doses of 50 mg three patients demonstrated side-effects which could be avoided by dividing the single dose into smaller ones.

A canine gastroduodenopancreatic block was isolated and perfused extracorporeally with homologous blood. This preparation was used for studying stimulated exocrine secretion of the pancreas. Stimulants were infused intra-arterially. Both vagi were stimulated electrically. Hydrochloric acid or L-phenylalanine were instilled intragastrically. Pancreatic secretion induced by secretin and during HC1 instillation was rich in bicarbonate and poor in total protein. Pancreatic secretion obtained during the infusion of normal saline, cholecystokinin, bethanechol chloride or acetylcholine chloride and during instillation of amino acid as well as during electrical stimulation of vagi, contained less bicarbonate and more protein than secretin-induced secretion.

The effect of somatostatin on pentagastrin-induced gastric secretion was assessed on 6 isolated canine stomachs perfused ex vivo with homologous blood. Hormones were given at a constant rate into the gastric arterial circulation. Somatostatin caused inhibition of the HCl concentration and output and reduced the secretion volume in all stomachs studied. The output but not the concentration of pepsin was also reduced.