[Duodenal ulcer - multicenter double-blind study with proglumide]

In a randomised multicenter double blind study we investigated the healing-rate with proglumid and an antacid drug, studying 70 in- and outpatients with florid duodenal ulcer. We evaluated the size and depth of 59 chronic duodenal ulcers in 52 patients with endoscopic and x-ray-investigations before and after four-week-treatment. Inpatients of the proglumid-group had a significant higher healing-rate than inpatients in the antacid-group (95% against 70%, p less than 0.05). As found in endoscopy the outpatients in the proglumid-group had a higher healing-rate, but because of the smaller number of patients the difference was not significant. Summarized the in- and outpatients, the proglumid-group had a healing-rate of 83%, the antacid-group of 60% (p less than 0.05). Bigger ulcers with a size more than 120 mm2 at the beginning showed a significant better healing with proglumid than with the antacid-drug (t/2 = 14.6 resp. 24.6 days). With x-ray-examination we could not find differences of healing between the two groups, but younger patients often were not examined. The symptoms of patients did not show a significant difference during the healing-course. We could not find any side-effects. Proglumid is an effective drug for the healing of chronic duodenal ulcers.