[Gastrin in internal medicine]

A pathophysiological role of gastrin has been established only in the Zollinger-Ellison-Syndrome. Hypergastrinemia may be found in cases with prenicious anemia, atrophic gastritis and after all forms of vagotomy; furthermore in the excluded antrum syndrome, the short bowel syndrome, in renal insufficiency, pyloric stenoses and after oral or parenteral administration of calcium. The role of gastrin in the pathogenesis of duodenal ulcer is unknown.