Studies of basal and stimulated gastric acid output in Jordanian male and female patients and controls.

To further elucidate geographic variations in acid secretion, basal and maximal acid output, corrected for body weight, was studied in age-matched groups of 86 patients with duodenal ulcer, 26 patients with non-ulcer dyspepsia and 31 normal controls in Jordan. The acid output was significantly higher in duodenal ulcer subjects, but in patients with non-ulcer dyspepsia it was the same as in controls. There were important sex differences: males secreted significantly more acid than females in all groups; and increased acid secretion in duodenal ulcer patients was due to hypersecretion in male patients only, there being no significant difference in acid secretion in females of any study group. Twenty-six percent of the duodenal ulcer subjects in the age-matched groups were acid hypersecretors, and these were all males. Weight had no effect on acid output. When compared to most studies from other parts of the world, it is apparent that females with duodenal ulcer in Jordan have less increase in acid secretion. Impaired mucosal resistance is probably more important than acid hypersecretion in the pathogenesis of duodenal ulcer in Jordan.