Ranitidine and omeprazole as adjuvant therapy to pancrelipase to improve fat absorption in patients with cystic fibrosis.

BACKGROUND

Inadequate treatment of pancreatic insufficiency in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) causes malabsorption of nutrients with significant sequelae. The objective of this study was to measure the effect of acid suppressant therapy on fat absorption in patients with CF who received a pH-sensitive, enteric-coated microtablet enzyme product.

METHODS

A double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study of 12 children and 10 adults with pancreatic insufficient CF was performed. All subjects were receiving pancrelipase therapy (Pancrease MT10 and MT16; Ortho-McNeil, Springhouse, PA, U.S.A.) and for the study also received either placebo or ranitidine (Zantac; Glaxo-Wellcome, Research Triangle Park, NC U.S.A.) 5 mg/kg or 10 mg/kg daily. The adult subjects also received omeprazole therapy (Prilosec; AstraZeneca/Merck, Wilmington, DE, U.S.A.), 20 mg daily, as adjuvant therapy to pancreatic enzymes. Serial 3-day fat-balance studies were performed in the Clinical Research Center. The data were analyzed using individual paired t tests that compared each treatment with placebo and two repeated-measures, general linear model F tests.

RESULTS

The linear model for all subjects showed no overall adjuvant drug effect on fat absorption, P = 0.32. A second linear model F test analysis of adult subjects, comparing all four drug treatments (placebo, ranitidine 5 and 10 mg/kg daily and omeprazole), also showed no difference in fat absorption, P = 0.15. Paired t test subgroup analysis of the adults showed an improvement of 4.97% (P = 0.003) in mean fat absorption comparing low-dose ranitidine to placebo. All other t test analyses showed no significant change in fat absorption between placebo and acid suppressant treatment. There was marked intersubject and intrasubject variability in fat absorption.

CONCLUSIONS

No overall significant improvement in fat absorption could be demonstrated with adjuvant therapy. Fat absorption measured by 3-day fat-balance studies varied greatly even when comparing the same subject for placebo and baseline treatments, despite identical dietary fat and enzyme intakes. The large variability limited our ability to test for a difference in fat absorption and has significant implication for the use of this test, considered the gold standard, for determining enzyme dosage adequacy.