Hallenbeck, George A.

The records in 40 cases of congenital atresia of the extrahepatic biliary tract, proved at surgical exploration or necropsy or both, were studied at the Mayo Clinic with reference to clinical and pathologic aspects. Histologic examination of the liver was carried out in 21 of these cases; the muscular injections of vitamin K; each of these patients died during hospitalization.

Commercial preparations of secretin inhibit gastric secretion of Heidenhain pouches in response to certain stimuli. Since these preparations are mucosal extracts and not pure secretin, inhibition could be due to active materials other than secretin present in the extracts. To determine whether other active substances were present, two commercial secretin preparations, which were markedly different in weight per unit of pancreatic secretagogic activity, were tested for their relative abilities to stimulate pancreatic secretion in dogs with Thomas cannulas and to inhibit gastric secretion of Heidenhain pouches stimulated by exogenous gastrin in totally gastrectomized dogs. Inhibition of gastric secretion occurred with both preparations. The ratio between the weight of extract required to inhibit gastric secretion and that required to stimulate pancreatic secretion was the same for the two preparations despite the great differences in weights necessary to produce equivalent stimulation of the pancreas. This supports the concept that the same factor, either secretin or a closely related substance, accounted for both of these effects.

This study was done to determine whether, after a meat meal, the outputs of acid in gastric juice and free histamine in urine are related and whether the output of free urinary histamine is increased after transplantation of the gastric antrum to the colon. Dogs with separated gastric pouches (Heidenhain) were used. Gastric juice and urine were collected at hourly intervals before and after the ingestion of the meal and for 24-hour periods before and after transplantation of the gastric antrum to the colon. Similar collections were made when histamine was injected intravenously at different rates. A rough temporal correlation was found between the outputs of HCl in gastric juice and free histamine in the urine after the meal of meat. There was not a significant increase in the 24-hour output of free histamine in the urine of the dogs in which a modest hypersecretion developed following transplantation of the gastric antrum to the colon.