An improved radioimmunoassay of serum gastrin using commercial kit

Our experience with a commercially available kit for the measurement of serum gastrin has been reported. Significant non-specific interference was noted by the addition of serum contents in the assay which lead to erroneous results. Use of gastrin free serum as a diluent in the standard curve was found to improve the mean recovery of added gastrin. With this modification the procedure was evaluated for its clinical application. In 30 normal subjects, the fasting mean gastrin level was 78.7 plus or minus 31.9 (S.D.) pg/ml; in 18 of these individuals the postprandial mean level was 118.3 plus or minus 26.7 (S.D.) pg/ml. In 15 patients with pernicious anemia the mean level was 912 plus or minus 779 pg/ml; and in 4 patients with Zollinger-Ellison (ZE) syndrome the mean gastrin level was 1950 plus or minus 379 (S.D.) pg/ml. A significant rise in gastrin level was noted in patients with kidney failure during and after dialysis (p smaller than 0.05).