Argyrophil cell hyperplasia and a carcinoid tumour in the stomach of a patient with sporadic Zollinger-Ellison syndrome

Abstract

In the rat, hypergastrinaemia induced by drug treatment with omeprazole or potent H2receptor antagonists leads to the development of gastric enterochromaffin-like cell carcinoids. In man, gastric carcinoids induced by hypergastrinaemia have been described only in patients with chronic atrophic gastritis type A and in patients with the multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 1. This patient with Zollinger-Ellison syndrome without gastric mucosal atrophy and without evidence of the multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome developed an argyrophil gastric carcinoid tumour. This observation indicates that hypergastrinaemia in the sporadic Zollinger-Ellisonsyndrome may induce gastric carcinoids.