[Hormonal changes in diseases of the gastrointestinal tract]

Gastrointestinal hormones and regulatory peptides of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) influence many digestive functions and therefore it is essential in diseases of the GIT to search also for changes of GIT hormones in plasma or for an altered response of the target organ to hormonal abnormalities. An unequivocal physiological function is known so far only in gastrin, cholecystokinin, secretin, gastric inhibitory polypeptide, vasoactive intestinal polypeptide, motilin, somatostatin, glucagon and pancreatic polypeptide. The authors analyzes therefore different nosological unites, or clinical syndromes associated with excessive production of gastrin, vasoactive intestinal polypeptide, glucagon and somatostatin. He discusses also the syndrome of malignant carcinoid caused by excessive formation of serotonin in the enterochromaffin cells of the GIT which by its symptoms can imitate some apudomas of the GIT.