The intragastric milieu during gastric ulcer treatment with pirenzepine 50 mg b.i.d. or cimetidine 400 mg b.i.d.

In a double-blind randomised four-center trial 43 patients with gastric ulcer (20 men, 23 women; mean age 52.2 years) were treated with either pirenzepine (P) 50 mg b.i.d. (n = 24) or cimetidine (C) 400 mg b.i.d. (n = 19) during six weeks. In ten patients gastric juice was examined before and at the end of the treatment for concentration and type of the microbial flora, and for nitrite concentration. After six weeks 83% of the patients in both groups were either symptom-free or clearly improved. In 15/24 patients on P (62.6%) and in 13/18 on C (72.2%) the ulcer(s) were healed at the time of control endoscopy. In the ten patients investigated, intragastric concentrations of fungi, bacteria, and nitrite were not significantly changed by the treatment. In gastric ulcer, treatment with pirenzepine 50 mg b.i.d. or cimetidine 400 mg b.i.d. during six weeks does not result in significant microbial overgrowth or generation of nitrite.