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Plasma somatostatin levels in patients with chronic idiopathic intestinal pseudo-obstruction
M Peracchi1, G Basilisco, B Bareggi
1Cattedra di Malattie del Metabolismo, Università degli Studi di Milano, IRCCS-Ospedale Maggiore, Italy.
Objectives:
Somatostatin participates in the control of gut motility. Recently, somatostatin analogs have been proposed as therapeutic agents for chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction, although the endogenous somatostatin pattern has never been assessed in this syndrome. We aimed to evaluate fasting and postprandial plasma somatostatin levels in patients with chronic idiopathic intestinal pseudo-obstruction (CIIP).
Methods:
We studied eight patients with CIIP and 10 healthy volunteers. Blood samples were taken at regular intervals while patients and subjects fasted and during the 3 h after a standard solid/liquid meal (550 kcal) had been eaten. Somatostatin was measured by radioimmunoassay.
Results:
Fasting somatostatin levels were normal, whereas postprandial peptide responses were markedly impaired or even absent in patients with CIIP.
Conclusions:
An impaired postprandial somatostatin response in patients with CIIP seems to be characteristic of this heterogenous disorder. Whether the lack of somatostatin response to a meal identifies patients with severe gut dysmotility for whom treatment with somatostatin analogs would be useful remains to be verified.