PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Massarrat, S
AU  - Eisenmann, A
TI  - Factors affecting the healing rate of duodenal and pyloric ulcers with low-dose antacid treatment.
AID  - 10.1136/gut.22.2.97
DP  - 1981 Feb 01
TA  - Gut
PG  - 97--102
VI  - 22
IP  - 2
4099  - http://gut.bmj.com/content/22/2/97.short
4100  - http://gut.bmj.com/content/22/2/97.full
SO  - Gut1981 Feb 01; 22
AB  - In 80 patients with duodenal ulcer, the effects of various factors--symptoms, endoscopic findings, and peak acid output (PAO)--on the healing rate were studied during eight weeks of outpatient therapy with low-dose antacid (neutralising capacity less than 50 mmol HCl/d). Fifty-six per cent of the ulcers healed. The following unfavourable factors were found to cause a significant delay in ulcer healing: a long duration of pain in the last ulcer relapse and the present period of ulcer pain, smoking, stenosis of the duodenal bulb, and a high PAO. Multiple regression analysis showed that three factors (duration of the present ulcer pain, smoking, and stenosis of the duodenum) had a significant influence on healing rate. According to the results obtained with this method, the patients with no or only one unfavourable factor (n = 35) had the best healing rate: 80%, compared with patients who had two (n = 31) or three (n = 14) unfavourable factors. The healing rate of the latter two groups was 41% and 28%, respectively (p less than 0.001). A prognostic score based on these three factors represents the severity of duodenal-ulcer disease with regard to the healing process under placebo-like doses of antacid.