Acute pancreatitis possibly due to arginine use: a case report.

Arginine has been used by millions of athletes over the past 20 years to enhance production of human growth hormone. The effects of arginine supplementation include increased fat burning and muscle building, enhanced immunity, and improvement in erectile function in men. Excessive doses of basic amino acids such as ethionine, methionine and lysine are known to damage the rat pancreas. Recent studies have demonstrated that excessive doses of arginine induce necrotizing pancreatitis in rats. In this article, we report a 16-year-old male patient hospitalized in our clinic because of severe pain in upper abdomen, nausea and vomiting who was suspected to have arginine-induced acute pancreatitis.