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Oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTT) were performed for two subsequent days in 4 patients with active acromegaly, 2 patients with prolactin-producing pituitary adenomas and one insulinoma patient. Thirty minutes before the second OGTT 250 mug of somatostatin were injected intravenously as a bolus followed by a somatostatin infusion (500 mug) over 21/2 hours. The OGTTs were pathologic due to the hGH- and hPRL-induced insulin antagonism; they could not be normalized or improved by somatostatin. Only the peak of the blood sugar curve was shifted from one to two and a half hours after glucose administration; insulin and hGH levels were regularly suppressed after somatostatin whereas hPRL remained unchanged in most instances. Gastrin levels increased in all patients during the OGTT, the increase was suppressed in 4 patients. These findings show that the pathologic glucose tolerance due to insulin antagonism could not be improved by somatostatin in contrast to the deteriorated glucose tolerance in insulinopenic states.

Coagulation physiologic tests were carried out and plasminogen activity and concentration were measured in the case of 6 patients (5 islet cell adenomas and 1 islet cell carcinoma). Except a reduced plasminogen activity in the postoperative phase no other unequivocally pathologic data were found. This phenomenon can probably by attributed to the enhanced plasmin inhibitors of the human plasma. The problem of so-called hypercoagulaemia of these patients can be clarified only after the investigation of the half-lives of the various coagulation factors.