Marked prolongation in disappearance half-time of plasma cholecystokinin-octapeptide in patients with hepatic cirrhosis.

For exploration on the elimination of cholecystokinin from the circulation, the disappearance half-time of cholecystokinin-octapeptide was estimated with cholecystokinin specific radioimmunoassay in normal subjects and patients with chronic renal failure and with hepatic cirrhosis. With a brief infusion of 30.4 ng/kg of cholecystokinin-octapeptide for 2 min, plasma cholecystokinin level rose from 16.1 +/- 3.6 pg/ml (mean +/- SE) to 216.5 +/- 6.1 pg/ml at 3 min after starting infusion, and decreased rapidly in a single exponential fashion for 10 min in hepatic cirrhosis. The disappearance half-time of cholecystokinin-octapeptide in patients with hepatic cirrhosis was 2.45 +/- 0.07 min, and it was significantly longer than that in normal subjects (1.30 +/- 0.07) or patients with chronic renal failure (1.70 +/- 0.11). These findings suggest that the liver plays a major role in cholecystokinin-octapeptide elimination in humans.