A new synthetic porcine secretin for facilitation of cannulation of the dorsal pancreatic duct at ERCP in patients with pancreas divisum: a multicenter, randomized, double-blind comparative study

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Secretin in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Secretin, a 27 amino acid polypeptide released in response to duodenal luminal acidification, stimulates secretion of water and bicarbonate from pancreatic ductal cells.

To date the only secretin available for clinical use has been a biologically derived compound extracted from porcine duodenums.

Who Took Part

The age groups tagged for this paper are adults, middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

Patients with pancreas divisum in whom minor papilla cannulation initially was unsuccessful were enrolled.

If the minor papilla orifice and/or pancreatic juice flow was noted, cannulation was attempted and success or failure was documented (phase 1), as well as the time taken for successful cannulation.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and multicenter.

Because people in this Secretin study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Blinding on both sides kept the participants and researchers unaware of who received Secretin.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Secretin could be set against what happens without it.

More than one site took part, so the participants came from several places.

A multicenter, prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, comparative trial was conducted at 4 centers with expertise in pancreaticobiliary endoscopy.

Either saline solution (placebo) or synthetic porcine secretin was administered.

If cannulation was unsuccessful, no juice flow was noted, or the orifice was not seen, the alternate agent was administered (phase 2).

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Cholangiopancreatography, Endoscopic Retrograde, Pancreas and Secretin.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Secretin.

Its findings take up roughly 8 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2003 (Gastrointestinal endoscopy), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Secretin compound page, all human trials.