Introduction: Zollinger-Ellison syndrome is characterized by recurrent peptic ulcers and diarrhea that result from gastrin-secreting neuroendocrine tumors of the gastrointestinal tract; nevertheless, severe hypergastrinemia may also have alternative pathogenetic explanations.
Case presentation: A 61-year-old woman of Caucasian origin presented with a history of epigastric pain and early satiety, severe hypergastrinemia (approximately 2000 pg/mL) and a neuroendocrine polyp in the corpus of her stomach. Chronic atrophic gastritis and intestinal metaplasia was present, but she denied use of acid suppressant drugs and the results of tests for Helicobacter pylori as well as gastric parietal cell and intrinsic factor antibodies were negative. She underwent a radical gastric tangential resection. Six months later, serum gastrin was still elevated despite lack of recurrence of tumor.
Conclusion: The clinical picture was suggestive for a hypochlorhydria-related hypergastrinemia with subsequent development of a non-secreting carcinoid. We suggest a periodic endoscopic follow-up in patients with severe hypochlorhydria-related hypergastrinemia in order to earlier detect neuroendocrine polyps.