Acid-secretory response and parietal cell sensitivity in patients with duodenal ulcer before and after treatment with sucralfate or ranitidine.

Patients with endoscopically proved duodenal ulcer were randomly assigned to treatment with either ranitidine 300 mg at bedtime or sucralfate 2 g twice daily for six weeks. Acid-secretory studies were performed before commencement and 60 to 84 hours after cessation of treatment and endoscopic healing was confirmed. Patients were randomly assigned to receive a constant infusion of secretory stimulant: either pentagastrin 0.1 and 6.0 micrograms/kg/hour or histamine acid phosphate 4.0 and 40 micrograms/kg/hour. Acid output in mmol/hour was measured for basal, low dose, and high dose output. Parietal cell sensitivity (PCS) was calculated as the ratio of low-dose acid output: high-dose acid output and expressed as a percentage. Values before and after treatment were compared and significance of differences was determined using the Student paired t test. There was an apparent decrease in basal acid output, low-dose acid output, high-dose acid output, and PCS with ulcer healing, regardless of treatment or stimulant used. Basal acid output, low-dose acid output, high-dose acid output, and PCS were significantly lower in the sucralfate-treated group, but only high-dose acid output decreased significantly in the ranitidine-treated group. These differences may be relevant to early duodenal ulcer relapse in ranitidine-treated patients.