GLUCAGON TEST IN OBSTRUCTIVE JAUNDICE

Abstract

Intravenous glucagon test was performed in twelve cases with obstructive jaundice and in eleven normal persons as control.
Mean fasting blood sugar level was 103.mg/dl in the former and 94.1mg/dl in the latter. After glucagon injection, an average increment of the blood sugar level was 48.2mg/dl and 42.4mg/dl, respectively. The difference between two groups was not statistically significant. The average blood sugar level reached the fasting level before 60 minutes after glucagon injection in control group but not in jaundice group. This finding is interpreted to indicate accelerated glycogenolysis in obstructive jaundice.
Two minutes after glucagon injection, mean serum insulin level reached 44.6μU/ml in jaundice group and 73.3μU/ml in control group, but it returned to the fasting level within 60 minutes in these two groups. There was no significant difference between two groups in the serum insulin level.
As in our previous report, this immediate elevation of serum insulin was not noted in the cases with obstructive jaundice after intravenous glucose injection.
Therefore, these findings seems to indicate the existence of the different mechanism of pancreatic β-cell stimulation between glucagon and glucose.