[Summary of work session 4: Effects of calcitonin and somatostatin on the stomach and pancreas--a possible therapeutic principle].

Although calcitonin and somatostatin are polypeptid hormones of entirely different structure, in pharmacological doses they possess a similar effect to secretions of stomach and pancreas. Given intravenously, they generally inhibit the basal secretion of organs, stimulated by pentagastrin or pancreozymin, as well as the contraction of the gallbladder. Orally, calcitonin also suppresses by direct contact the secretion of the stomach. While calcitonin in higher doses shows only very slight and tolerable side effects (nausea, headache), somatostatin acts suppressively on many other hormone-regulated systems. Apart from this, disturbances of blood coagulation in monkeys and man were observed, findings which necessitate very careful application. Therapeutical trials appear reasonable with calcitonin in treating acute pancreatitis, in prophylaxis and treatment of stress ulcers with the danger of bleeding, in intensive care medicine, in preoperative procedure of Zollinger-Ellison syndrome as well as in duodenal ulcers (oral calcitonin). Double blind studies are carried out at present to answer most of these questions (acute pancreatitis, stress ulcers, duodenal ulcers), results of which should definitely be awaited.