PubMed1984
Healing rates were examined retrospectively in 124 outpatients with peptic ulcer who had received cimetidine for at least four weeks. Treatment was unsuccessful in 73 patients. A statistical analysis of the factors involved in treatment failure revealed that in patients with duodenal ulcers 60.6% of the treatment successes versus 26.8% of the treatment failures were nonsmokers (P less than 0.001). There was a significantly higher (P less than 0.01) incidence of varioliform gastritis among treatment failures (19.2%) than treatment successes (3.9%). The following factors seemed to have no influence on rates of ulcer healing: age, sex, duration of ulcer disease, duration (beyond four weeks) of cimetidine therapy, family history of peptic ulcer, alcohol consumption, and coffee consumption. Although there was a higher gastric:duodenal ulcer ratio as well as higher consumption of anti-inflammatory drugs in treatment failures than in treatment successes, the difference was not statistically significant.