ELEVATED PLASMA NORADRENALINE CONCENTRATIONS IN DUODENAL-ULCER PATIENTS ARE NOT NORMALIZED BY VAGOTOMY

Plasma noradrenaline, heart rate, and serum gastrin were significantly greater in 12 patients with duodenal ulcer compared to 12 normal subjects. Arterial blood pressure was the same in patients and controls. Intravenous infusion of adrenaline resulted in a greater rise in serum gastrin in duodenal ulcer patients, while the rise in plasma adrenaline was very similar in both groups of subjects. This suggests that the clearance of catecholamines from plasma is not retarded in duodenal ulcer patients. The abnormally high plasma noradrenaline concentrations were unchanged after vagotomy, indicating that the elevated plasma noradrenaline in duodenal ulcer patients is not related to epigastric pain. The elevated plasma noradrenaline levels in patients with duodenal ulcer are not explained by a general difference in plasma noradrenaline and sympathetic nervous activity between patients and controls because plasma noradrenaline is not elevated in other groups of patients, viz. patients with essential arterial hypertension and diabetics without ketosis and neuropathy. It may be that patients with duodenal ulcers are subject to more stress than normal subjects, provided that chronic stress does not result in arterial hypertension. It is also possible that the elevated plasma noradrenaline concentrations in these patients are compensatory to other cardiovascular changes or derived from outside the cardiovascular system, e.g. from the gastrointestinal tract. © 1979 by The Endocrine Society.