Ulcer associated and nonspecific duodenitis treatment by cimetidine

The clinical relevance of endoscopic and histologic inflammation of gastroduodenal mucosa in dyspepsia of unknown origin

Two hundred and ten patients were defined as having dyspepsia of unknown origin. At endoscopy 11% had body gastritis, 46% antral gastritis, and 19% bulbitis (two thirds combined with antral gastritis). Histologically, 22% had chronic corpus gastritis (79% superficial, 21% atrophic), which was combined with chronic antral gastritis in 84%, 33% had chronic antral gastritis (82% superficial, 18% atrophic); and 14% had duodenitis, which was combined with antral gastritis in 65%. Polymorphonuclear leukocytes were found in specimens from the body mucosa in 6%, from the antral mucosa in 13%, and from the duodenal cap in 4%. The endoscopic findings correlated significantly with the histologic findings in the duodenal bulb (kappa = 0.33) but not in the stomach. The frequency of endoscopic antral gastritis and the frequency of histologic chronic body and antral gastritis increased with age. Endoscopic bulbitis and histologic duodenitis and gastric metaplasia were commoner in men than in women. Peak acid output was higher in patients with than in those without endoscopic bulbitis and higher in smokers than in non-smokers when the significant sex differences in peak acid output were taken into account. Gastric metaplasia of the bulb was predominantly correlated to higher peak acid output and to some extent also to sex and smoking. Episodic pain was correlated to histologic duodenitis. Other dyspeptic symptoms and the intragastric bile acid concentration were not associated with any endoscopic or histologic findings. Of the 210 patients, 172 were reexamined after a double-blind 6-week treatment period with cimetidine, antacid, or placebo. The symptomatic outcome of these treatments was not associated with any significant change in endoscopic or histologic findings.

Histologic changes in the gastroduodenal mucosa after long-term medical treatment with cimetidine or parietal cell vagotomy in patients with juxtapyloric ulcer disease

Biopsy specimens were collected during endoscopy from pre-established sites in the corpus (n = 60), antrum (n = 53), and the duodenal bulb (n = 54) from the same patient before and 2-3 years after parietal cell vagotomy (PVC) or after a similar period of treatment with cimetidine. There was a significant increase in scores of chronic body gastritis after PCV (p less than 0.001) even in comparison with the cimetidine group (p less than 0.01), for which the scores of chronic body gastritis remained essentially unchanged. The scores of chronic antral gastritis and the incidence of intestinal metaplasia of the antrum increased significantly (p less than 0.05) in both the PCV and the cimetidine groups when the two treatment groups were analyzed together. The degree of polymorphonuclear infiltration in the body and antral mucosa, the incidence and severity of duodenitis, and the incidence of gastric metaplasia in the duodenal cap were unaffected by the treatment. In contrast to maintenance treatment with cimetidine PCV seems to accelerate the development of chronic body gastritis. The kappa statistics, as indicator of the reproducibility of histopathologic scoring, were acceptable.

Are endoscopic and/or histologic findings in gastroduodenal mucosa a predictor of clinical outcome in peptic ulcer disease? A 1-year follow-up study after initial healing with either cimetidine or medium-dose antacid

Patients with duodenal ulcer (DU; n = 79) or prepyloric ulcer (PPU; n = 39) received cimetidine, 400 mg twice daily, or Novaluzid, 10 ml four times daily (acid-neutralizing capacity, 340 mmol/day), in a multicentre, randomized, double-blind trial. Ulcer healing was almost identical with the two treatments at 4, 6, and 12 weeks in the DU group. Cimetidine was significantly more effective than antacids in alleviating symptoms in PPU disease, with no significant difference in ulcer healing. In the PPU group the symptomatic improvement was inferior irrespective of treatment, and there was a significantly lower healing rate at 4 weeks (p less than 0.05) than in the DU group. The relapse rate over a 1-year follow-up period with no therapy did not differ between the two treatment groups or between the two ulcer groups. No factors in history of disease or endoscopic or histologic variables were of predictive value with regard to delayed healing. The macroscopic appearance of the duodenal and antral mucosae improved significantly when ulcers had healed. In the subgroup of about 50% DU patients who experienced a relapse during the 1-year follow-up period, the histologic scoring of duodenitis remained basically unchanged, contrary to the significant improvement seen in the non-relapsing subgroup. The microscopic changes of the antral mucosa from the time of inclusion to healing seen in the PPU patients were of no predictive value with regard to relapse rate.