Abstract
Fifty-seven symptom-free patients with duodenal ulcer entered a double-blind trial to assess the prophylactic effect of cimetidine. Patients were randomly allocated to receive cimetidine 400 mg twice daily (29 patients) or placebo (28 patients). The trial was designed to imitate daily clinical practice, so duodenal ulcer disease was diagnosed by means of x-ray examination. Three patients from each group withdrew from the trial. All remaining patients continued to receive treatment for 12 months or until symptoms recurred. Three out of 26 patients suffered relapses during cimetidine treatment, compared with 20 out of 25 receiving placebo. No side effects were attributable to cimetidine. Long-term cimetidine treatment had no curative effect as relapses occurred soon after treatment was stopped. The estimated chance (cumulative remission rate +/- 2 SE) of remaining symptom-free 13 weeks after one year's cimetidine treatment had been completed was 47 +/- 21%. Maintenance treatment with cimetidine is a suitable alternative to elective in surgery in patients with duodenal ulcer subjects frequent relapses. Further study is needed to establish the optimal duration and safety of prolonged cimetidine treatment.
Full text
PDF
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Blackwood W. S., Maudgal D. P., Pickard R. G., Lawrence D., Northfield T. C. Cimetidine in duodenal ulcer. Controlled trial. Lancet. 1976 Jul 24;2(7978):174–176. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(76)92347-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Greibe J., Bugge P., Gjorup T., Lauritzen T., Bonnevie O., Wulff H. R. Long-term prognosis of duodenal ulcer: follow-up study and survey of doctors' estimates. Br Med J. 1977 Dec 17;2(6102):1572–1574. doi: 10.1136/bmj.2.6102.1572. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Gudmand-Höyer E., Frost F., Jensen K. B., Krag E., Rask-Madsen J., Rahbek I., Rune S., Wulff H. R. A pragmatic trial of cimetidine in duodenal ulcer patients. Scand J Gastroenterol. 1977;12(5):611–613. doi: 10.3109/00365527709181342. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Haggie S. J., Fermont D. C., Wyllie J. H. Treatment of duodenal ulcer with cimetidine. Lancet. 1976 May 8;1(7967):983–984. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(76)91859-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Peto R., Pike M. C., Armitage P., Breslow N. E., Cox D. R., Howard S. V., Mantel N., McPherson K., Peto J., Smith P. G. Design and analysis of randomized clinical trials requiring prolonged observation of each patient. II. analysis and examples. Br J Cancer. 1977 Jan;35(1):1–39. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1977.1. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Thompson M. H., Venables C. W., Smith P. A., Walker W. Nocturnal metiamide treatment in the management of healed duodenal ulceration. Gut. 1977 Jun;18(6):438–441. doi: 10.1136/gut.18.6.438. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Wallace W. A., Orr C. M., Bearn A. R. Perforation of chronic peptic ulcers after cimetidine. Br Med J. 1977 Oct 1;2(6091):865–866. doi: 10.1136/bmj.2.6091.865. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]