Histamine H2-receptor antagonists in the treatment of duodenal ulcers.

A double-blind trial of histamine H2-receptor antagonists and placebo was carried out in 46 patients with endoscopically proven duodenal ulceration. H2-receptor antagonists (metiamide and cimetidine) produced a significantly greater degree of completely healed ulcers and fewer complete failures than placebo. The results of the trial indicate that H2-receptor antagonists promote the healing of ulcers. The action of these compounds would appear to be related to the inhibition of acid secretion. Neither the duration of the illness, rate of recurrence of the ulcers of level of gastric acid secretion materially affected the healing rate in indvidual patients. There were no serious side-effects over the 6-week period of drug administration, but the metiamide was replaced by cimetidine because reports from other centrea indicated that agranulocytosis was associtated with metiamide therapy.