MANY.ANY OBSERVATIONS in man and animal suggest that histamine contributes to the gastric hypersecretion and peptic ulcer that may arise after portacaval shunt operation.1-3 However, blood histamine levels in humans with a portacaval shunt and peptic ulcer have not been reported. Therefore, we wish to report the occurrence of gastric hypersecretion, an intractable peptic ulcer, and a high blood histamine level in a patient who had undergone portacaval shunt surgery for portal hypertension.
Methods
Histamine.
—Blood histamine was determined by a modification (Anton and Sayre, in preparation) of the fluorometric procedure of Shore et al.4 Blood was drawn into a heparinized plastic syringe from an antecubital vein and immediately transferred to an iced, plastic centrifuge tube. An aliquot of whole blood was removed and then the specimen was centrifuged at 3,000 × G for 20 minutes to obtain plasma, buffy coat, and red cells. Patients were in the