Ranitidine 150 mg twice daily vs 300 mg nightly in treatment of duodenal ulcers

102 patients with endoscopically proven duodenal ulcers were randomly allocated to treatment with ranitidine either 150 mg twice a day or 300 mg every evening for 4 weeks in a prospective double-blind study. The two groups were similar. 48/57 (84%) healed on ranitidine 150 mg twice daily and 43/45 (96%) healed on 300 mg every evening (p = 0.9)--that is, ranitidine 300 mg as a single night time dose is as effective as 150 mg twice daily. The results also indicate the importance of overnight gastric acidity in the pathogenesis of duodenal ulcers.