11.   Gastric endocrine cell densities were expressed as mean.

12.   For patients with iterative studies, only mean gastric cell densities obtained from the last set of biopsy specimens or from the gastrectomy specimen were taken in consideration.

13.   Analysis of this parameter in terms of age showed that argyrophil cell densities were roughly stable in young and old women while they declined in old men.

14.   Our work indicates that fundic argyrophil cell densities were significantly higher in women than in men.

15.   We also confirm in our patients the previous observations made in normal subjects by Green et al, concerning the evolution of endocrine cell densities with age.

16.   Indeed, while fundic argyrophil cell densities declined with age in men, no such tendency was evident in women.

17.   Comparing the two groups of patients with Zollinger-Ellison sydrome, there was no difference in gastrin and somatostatin cell densities or in the fasting serum gastrin concentration.