The effects of fasting on 24‐h gastric secretion of patients with duodenal ulcers resistant to ranitidine

Abstract

We compared the effects of fasting and feeding on the antisecretory actions of ranitidine in 19 patients whose duodenal ulcers remained unhealed or relapsed despite treatment with the drug. Nine of the patients received, and continued with, 150 mg ranitidine b.d. and 10 took 300 mg ranitidine b.d. In all patients, gastric secretion was inhibited during the night, with near-neutral pH and acid output less than an average of 2 mmol in 8 h. Gastric secretion was not inhibited during the day by either of the therapeutic regimens. However, on the day when the patients fasted, gastric acidity was, on average, 20-50 mmol/L less than on the day when food was consumed. Food-induced interference with the therapeutic inhibition of gastric secretion produced by H2-receptor antagonists may be responsible for the unsatisfactory clinical response of some patients with duodenal ulcers. Prolonged fasting can improve the control of gastric secretion and may allow resistant ulcers to heal.