Famotidine in the short-term treatment of duodenal ulcer and of concomitant peptic lesions: comparison with cimetidine.

Twenty patients affected with endoscopically demonstrated duodenal ulcer were studied. They were randomly divided into two groups of ten individuals each. The first group was treated with famotidine 40 mg/die/os, the second one with cimetidine 800 mg/die/os; both drugs were administered in one medication at bedtime. In each group, eight patients completed the treatment: six out of eight famotidine treated and five out of eight cimetidine treated patients showed ulcer healing on upper digestive endoscopy after four weeks of treatment; after eight weeks of therapy, all patients of both groups displayed ulcer healing. Nevertheless, an overall quantitative evaluation of all peptic lesions (performed according to an endoscopic arbitrary score) indicated a higher effectiveness of famotidine. Famotidine did not affect humoral parameters of renal, hepatic and myelopoietic function and did not significantly change fasting serum gastrin levels.