[The etiology of peptic ulceration in patients with chronic pulmonary emphysema].

The purpose of this study was to determine the etiology of peptic ulceration in patients with pulmonary emphysema. We performed endoscopy in 50 patients with chronic pulmonary emphysema, these were patients with and without peptic ulcer. There was no significant differences between the patients with and without ulcer, with respect to past history of pneumonia, degree of dyspnea, current drugs, nutritional status, the extent of gastric mucosal atrophy, gastric mucosal blood flow, gastric mucosal hexosamine content and serum pepsinogen levels. But patients with peptic ulcer were significantly younger than patients without peptic ulcer. Cigarettes per day in patients with peptic ulcer 29.3 +/- 11.6 cigarettes/day were significantly higher than those without peptic ulcer 22.5 +/- 10.0 cigarettes/day. We concluded that increased incidence of peptic ulceration in patients with chronic pulmonary emphysema is related to the quantity of cigarette smoking.