Stig Ingemansson

Substance P and 5-HT in granules isolated from an intestinal argentaffin carcinoid

SummaryIntestinal argentaffin carcinoids, thought to originate from enterochromaffin cells, occasionally contain large amounts of substance P-like immunoreactivity in addition to 5-HT. The cytoplasmic granules of one such tumour were isolated. The granules, which in the electron microscope were shown to be argentaffin, contained both substance P-like immunoreactivity and 5-HT. The results support the view that substance P is localized in a population of enterochromaffin cells where it is stored in the cytoplasmic granules together with 5-HT.

The functional importance of sympathetic nerves to the liver and endocrine pancreas.

Sympathetic noradrenergic nerves, with their wellknown cardiovascular effects, have recently been found to influence several metabolic and hormone-releasing processes. Morphological investigations in man have revealed a dense sympathetic innervation of the liver parenchyma as well as sympathetic fibers among the endocrine cells in the islets of Langerhans. Functional studies both in animals and man have shown that electrical or reflex activation of the hepatic and pancreatic sympathetic nerve fibers causes an increased output of glucose from the liver as well as a stimulation of glucagon and an inhibition of insulin release from the pancreas. From these results we conclude that damage to sympathetic nerves should be avoided in abdominal surgery.

Pancreatic vein catheterization with gastrin assay in normal patients and in patients with the Zollinger-Ellison syndrome

Abstract Simultaneous catheterization of the aorta and the caval, portal, and pancreatic veins with blood sampling for gastrin radioimmunoassay was performed in three patients with the Zollinger-Ellison syndrome and in five control patients without peptic ulcer disease. In the controls the gastrin concentrations in the pancreatic veins ranged from 15 to 148 pg/ml (mean, 65; median, 67). Pre- and postoperative catheterizations were performed in two of the Zollinger-Ellison patients, and very high gastrin concentrations in several pancreatic veins indicated the occurrence of multiple tumors, whereas angiography was able to reveal only one tumor in one of the patients. Twelve months after extirpation of the tumors and total gastrectomy, gastrin concentrations in peripheral as well as pancreatic venous blood were lower but still pathologically high. The third patient was catheterized twice, two and twelve months after tumor extirpation and total gastrectomy. The gastrin values from this patient were within the range of the reference group except for one pancreatic vein with slightly increased concentrations. The gastrin concentration did not increase in the interval between the two catheterizations. No complications were noted. The triple catheterization technic with blood sampling for hormone assay is advocated as a diagnostic tool and as a localization procedure in patients with suspected or proved Zollinger-Ellison syndrome.

Screening for medullary carcinoma of the thyroid in families with Sipple's syndrome: evaluation of new stimulation tests

Abstract. In search of new practical diagnostic methods for the early diagnosis of hereditary medullary carcinoma of the thyroid (MCT) calcitonin release has been studied following induction by pentagastrin, cholecystokinin‐pancreozymin (the C‐terminal octapeptide, C8‐CCK, and the native swine extract), and ethanol in eighteen cases of MCT (all but one clinically occult), three ‘borderline cases’, seven first degree relatives of patients with hereditary MCT and thirty‐five healthy controls.

Islet cell hyperplasia localized by pancreatic vein catheterization and insulin radioimmunoassay.

A patient with organic hypoglycemia but with normal pancreatic arteriography was investigated with pancreatic vein catheterization for insulin immunoassay. Very high insulin concentrations (1, 130 micronU/ml) were found in a vein draining part of the pancreatic tail. Even though no tumor was found at operation, distal hemipancreatectomy was performed according to the assay findings. Histology and immunohistochemistry revealed a localized islet hyperplasia.

Scintigraphic evaluation and dynamic studies with thallium-201 in thyroid lesions with suspected cancer

AbstractScintigraphic studies of the thyroid with thallium-201 chloride were performed in 46 patients in whom the final diagnosis was established by histology. In dynamic studies of 36 patients, sequential imaging was performed the first 40 min after injection. A single exponential, Cexp(-λt), was fitted to each of the curves generated from apparently pathological and from normal regions in each patient, as determined by earlier conventional scintigrams. To minimize the effects of normal individual variations, the relation between pathological (p) and normal (n) regions in the same patient was emphasized and quantified by two parameters, namely the extrapolated zero-time intercept (Cp/Cn) and the time development

Pancreatic polypeptide‐producing tumors report on two cases

{\text{(}}\lambda _p - \lambda _n {\text{)}}

Prostaglandin E1 effect on human splanchnic circulation at different dose levels.

of the ratio of couting rates/unit area in the two regions. The turnover appears to be somewhat slower for pathological tissue than for normal tisue. Although this difference was significant on the 5% level for both cancer and adenoma as a group, only the relative disappearance rate