BACKGROUND

Previous studies have shown that one-week triple therapy consisting of omeprazole, clarithromycin and amoxycillin may cure Helicobacter pylori infection in the vast majority of patients. The present study was designed to test the hypothesis that a triple therapy with pantoprazole, clarithromycin and amoxycillin cures the infection in > or = 80% of duodenal ulcer patients infected with H. pylori.

METHODS

In an open two-centre study, 60 duodenal ulcer patients were treated with pantoprazole 40 mg b.d., clarithromycin 500 mg b.d. and amoxycillin 1 g b.d. for 1 week. During the second week patients received pantoprazole 40 mg once in the morning. We assessed H. pylori infection before treatment and 4 weeks after cessation of the study medication by a rapid urease test, histology after Warthin-Starry stain and a 13C-urea breath test.

RESULTS

Sixty patients (42 males, mean age 47.4 years) entered the trial. All patients were infected with H. pylori. One patient was withdrawn from the study because of allergy to penicillin and six patients were protocol violators. H. pylori infection was cured in 47 out of 53 patients who completed the trial according to the protocol (89%; 95% CI: 80-97%) and in 49 of 60 patients included in the trial (82%; 95% CI: 72-92%). Four weeks after the last administration of study drugs, 55 out of 60 ulcers had healed (92%). Twenty-nine patients reported 51 adverse events that were mostly mild to moderate.

CONCLUSIONS

One-week triple therapy consisting of pantoprazole, clarithromycin and amoxycillin is a simple and effective approach to the cure of H. pylori infection in patients with duodenal ulcer. In those patients who took the drugs as prescribed the H. pylori cure rate was 89%, with the lower 95% confidence limit being 80%.