Incidence of duodenal ulcer healing after 1 week of proton pump inhibitor triple therapy for eradication of Helicobacter pylori. The Lansoprazole Helicobacter Study Group.

BACKGROUND

A number of clinical studies have assessed the efficacy of short-term twice-daily Helicobacter pylori eradication regimens but few have investigated the proportion of patients in whom duodenal ulcer disease was healed with these regimens.

AIM

To compare the safety and efficacy of four 1-week H. pylori eradication regimens in the healing of H. pylori associated duodenal ulcer disease.

METHODS

Following endoscopic confirmation of duodenal ulcer disease and a positive CLO test, patients underwent a 13C-urea breath test to confirm H. pylori status. Treatment with one of four regimens: LAC, LAM, LCM or OAM, where L is lansoprazole 30 mg b.d., A is amoxycillin 1 g b.d., M is metronidazole 400 mg b.d., C is clarithromycin 250 mg b.d., and O is omeprazole 20 mg b.d., was assigned randomly to those patients who were H. pylori positive, with 62 (LAC), 64 (LAM), 61 (LCM) and 75 (OAM) patients in each treatment group. Follow-up breath tests and endoscopies were performed at least 28 days after the end of treatment.

RESULTS

Duodenal ulcer disease was healed 28 days after treatment in 53/62 (85.5%) patients who were treated with LAC, 52/64 (81.3%) of patients treated with LAM, 49/61 (80.3%) of patients treated with LCM and 60/75 (80.0%) of patients treated with OAM (intention-to-treat analysis, n = 262, assumed unhealed if no follow-up endoscopy was performed). All the treatments were of similar efficacy (P = 0.85, chi-squared test) with regard to the healing of duodenal ulcer disease.

CONCLUSIONS

The four 1-week treatment regimens were equally effective in healing H. pylori associated duodenal ulcer disease.