RESUMO
The present work was conducted on 47 patients as well as 12 healthy controls aiming to investigate the plasma patterns of some gastrointestinal peptides including gastrin, cholecystokinin, vasoactive intestinal peptide and beta- endorphin in patients with some gastrointestinal disorders including gastric ulcer, duodenal ulcer, mild reflux esophagitis and severe reflux esophagitis for the evaluation of the diagnostic and therapeutic applications of these peptides in the diseased states of the gut. The statistical analysis of the results revealed a highly significant increase in the plasma gastrin and VIP levels and a highly significant decrease in the plasma beta-endorphin and CCK levels in gastric ulcer group when compared with the control group