The Octreotide Story

Graph 8.1 Effect of 50 ng Octreotide (OT) or saline injections, given 30 min before food, on meal stimulated gallbladder emptying, as judged by serial measurements of gallbladder volume in control subjects. Data taken from reference 15. 

Samples of gallbladder bile obtained in this way were analysed for bile acids, phospholipids and cholesterol (from which the cholesterol saturation indices were derived). Biliary bile-acid composition was then measured by HPLC. The vesicles were separated from micelles by sucrose density gradient ultra-centrifugation and the cholesterol microcrystal nucleation time measured as described above. 

These analyses were carried out in three groups of patients  

Biliary cholesterol saturation index (CSI) in nonacromegalic patients with cholesterol GBS (CH-GBS), acromegalic patients with Octreotide-associated GBS (OT-GBS), and stone-free patients before Octreotide treatment (No OT-GBS). Hie value of CSI = 1.0 indicates the limit of cholesterol solubility points above the line are supersaturated, whereas those below the line are unsaturated with cholesterol. (All graphs show mean values SEMs.) Data taken from reference 18. 

Graph 8.3 Group data for the cholesterokphospholipid (CH/PL) molar ratio in the vesicles prepared from gallbladder bile. Data taken from reference 18. 

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