The Value of Histamine as a Test for Gastric Function

Gastric Acidity: Relation to Various Factors Such as Age and Physical Fitness

“…The effect of this substance on gastric secretion has been discussed previously (4); suffice it is to say that it acts as a powerful stimulus. People without gastric disease, who showed various degrees of acidity after the alcohol stimulus, were selected; 0.5 mgm.…”

Gastric Acidity in Normal Individuals

“…Consequently the average acidities of the available standards are low and the incidence of achlorhydria high. As demonstrated by Gompertz and Vorhaus (1) and Bockus and Bank (2) histamine used in conjunction with the test meal enables one to differentiate true from false achlorhydria. Thus Davies and James (3), studying normal persons over the age of 60, and Vanzant (4) investigating a large series of normals of all ages, have made use of this means of differentiating true from false achlorhydria.…”

Pharmacological Management of Peptic Ulcer: A Century of Expert Opinions in Cecil Textbook of Medicine

“…Histamine was known by 1918 to stimulate the gastric acid secretion, and its value as a test for gastric function was validated in the United States in 1927. 17 The first antihistamine molecules of the ethanolamine class were used in animal experiments in 1933 and then in clinical settings in 1942, to be followed in 1945 by the introduction of diphenhydramine, which is still widely prescribed today. 16 Within a few years, research on animal models and clinical studies indicated that antihistaminic drugs were capable to neutralize all histamine effects except the stimulation of gastric secretion.…”