Assessment of exocrine pancreatic function by PABA test in diabetic patients.

Background and Methods: Exocrine pancreatic dysfunction is frequently seen in patients with fibrocal-culous pancreatic diabetes and insulin dependent diabetes mellitus. Also decreased pancreatic size in those patients has been reported. But exocrine dysfunction in patients with non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) is controversial. Simple tubeless PABA test has been widely used to test the chymotrypsin activity. In order to investigate the exocrine dysfunction in patients with NIDDM and to find out the factors affecting it, we performed PABA test and pancreatic size measurement in 20 diabetic patients and 8 controls. Results: 1) Excretion rate PABA in diabetic patients was significantly lower than that of healthy controls (58.3±17.5vs 76,5±11.49p, p<.0,05). 2) Among diabetic patients, underweight diabetics showed significantly lower excretion rate of PABA than non-underweight diabetics (50.2±18.5% vs 66,4±12,7%, p<0.05). 3) In non-underweight subjects, excretion rate of PABA was 66.4±12.7%, which is significantly lower than that of healthy controls (82.0±10.59%)(p<0.05), 4) In diabetic patients, urinary PABA excretion rate was not correlated with age, duration of diabetes mellitus, HbA1C and pancreatic size, but positively correlated with the ratio of ideal body weight. Conclusion: Exocrine pancreatic function was decreased in NIDDM patients and it seems to be negatively correlated with underweight