[Relations between disordered exocrine pancreas function, alcohol consumption and age in alcoholics]

During clinical withdrawal treatment, a disturbed exocrine pancreas function was found in 28 per cent of 72 alcohol addicts, which occurred in connection with an alcohol-induced pancreatitis. The clinical course was mainly quiescent. Altered bicarbonate concentrations and enzyme dissociations were found as a result of the secretin pancreozymin test. In alcohol addicts, the maximum activity of the amylase output was reached as early as 20 minutes and that of bicarbonate, trypsin and chemotrypsin not until 40 minutes post stimulationem. The sums of the logarithmically transformed 40-minute output of bicarbonate, amylase and trypsin displayed significant differences between the alcohol-addict and control groups. The degree of severity of the disturbed exocrine pancreas function was essentially a function of the daily amount of alcohol taken by the addict and of the age of the patient. The dysfunction was most evident in the 30-to-50-year-old patients. Chronic consumption of alcohol is assumed to give rise to a selective effect on the hydro-kinetic and ecbolic pancreas function.