[Immunoreactive trypsin in the blood serum of patients with endogenous hypercorticism]

Radioimmunoassay (RIA) was used to measure the response of serum trypsin to intravenous secretin and pancreozymin in 16 subjects with adrenocortical hyperfunction (group I) versus 6 subjects with hypercorticism (group II). In group I the enzyme reaction to the peptides was active and long-term. A similar rise in trypsin level occurred equally in patients free of chronic pancreatitis often present in Itsenko++ -Cushing syndrome. In group II patients RIA trypsin values comply with normal levels. The data obtained suggest an affected pancreatic status in adrenal hyperfunction both in the presence and absence of chronic pancreatitis which minimizes the informative value of the test in identification of chronic pancreatitis in endogenic hypercorticism.