[Alcoholic gastropathy. Notes on its epidemiology and the therapeutic experience using pirenzepine]

Chronic alcoholic gastritis is a very important social problem in the Health District of Arezzo, which covers an area where wine is an integral part of the diet. The etiology of this disease is related to the alcohol induced rupture of the gastric mucosal barrier. For this reason we wanted to verify the therapeutic effect of a "barrier acting drug" such as pirenzepine. A selected group of 50 randomized patients (46 males and 4 females, mean age 52.6 years) received in a double blind fashion 50 mg b.i.d. of pirenzepine or placebo for consecutive 4 weeks. Endoscopy and histological examinations performed before and after treatment together with the clinical evaluation of the dyspeptic symptoms, showed that pirenzepine was more active than placebo. In addition our results suggest that pirenzepine stimulates defence mechanisms of the gastric mucosa.