Predominant symptoms identify different subgroups in functional dyspepsia.

Objective: Dyspepsia is a common syndrome that often defies diagnosis. Whether the unexplained (or "functional") dyspepsia represents a homogeneous syndrome or includes different subgroups with specific clinical features has not been clarified. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between symptom severity, demographic features, and gastric dysmotility in a large series of patients with functional dyspepsia.

Reproducibility of a solid and of a liquid caloric meal for gastric emptying studies.

Simple meals are required for routine scintigraphic gastric emptying studies. We evaluated the reproducibility of a caloric liquid meal (520 kcal) compared to that of a solid meal (638 kcal) in 8 and 11 healthy volunteers, respectively. Gastric emptying rates and half-times were similar in two tests using the same meal, while the methods used to express lag times were not highly reproducible.

The effect of education on dementia occurrence in an Italian population with middle to high socioeconomic status.

Objective: To explore the relation between education and dementia prevalence by computing the odds ratios (ORs) for different educational levels after adjustment for age, gender, occupational level, and life habits.

Methods: A two-phase community study including 495 elderly subjects with middle to high socioeconomic status, aged more than 60 years and with a high percentage of noneducated subjects, was carried out in the province of Ravenna, Italy. Dementia and dementia type were clinically diagnosed using DSM-III-R diagnostic criteria.

Risk indicators of delayed gastric emptying of solids in patients with functional dyspepsia.

Background & Aims: Although gastric dysmotility and dyspeptic symptoms are often associated, their relationship remains unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between gastric emptying abnormalities and clinical features in functional dyspepsia.

Methods: In 343 patients with functional dyspepsia, the gastric emptying of solids was measured by a radioisotopic technique and four dyspeptic symptoms (epigastric pain and burning, postprandial fullness, nausea, and vomiting) were measured as absent, mild, relevant, and severe, according to their influence on patients' usual activities.

Effects of acute cold pressor test on vagally stimulated gastric acid secretion and circulating levels of human pancreatic polypeptide and gastrin.

The aims of our study were 3-fold: (1) to determine the effect of an acute cold pressor test on vagally stimulated gastric acid secretion, (2) to evaluate whether adrenergic blockers are able to prevent the stress-induced alterations of vagally stimulated gastric acid secretion, and (3) to assess the effect of stress and adrenergic blockers on serum levels of vagally stimulated pancreatic polypeptide and gastrin. Twenty-eight studies were carried out on 7 healthy subjects, each one of them being evaluated on four separate occasions. Active (4 degrees C) or control (37 degrees C) cold pressor tests were applied in random order after an interval of 15 min following completion of a vagal stimulation represented by modified sham feeding.

Patients with duodenitis have gastric secretory and motor functions like those of duodenal ulcer patients: results of a short-term treatment with ranitidine.

Gastric acid secretion, gastric emptying of solids, and the effects of short-term treatment with 300 mg ranitidine at bedtime were evaluated in symptomatic patients with endoscopically and histologically proven duodenitis. The patients investigated had basal and pentagastrin-stimulated gastric acid hypersecretion, but normal gastric emptying times. Ranitidine brought about a significant improvement of endoscopic and histological features compared with the pretreatment findings.

Gastric acid secretion and gastric emptying of liquids in 99 male duodenal ulcer patients.

Gastric acid hypersecretion and accelerated gastric emptying are commonly considered as possible determinants of duodenal ulcer, but the relative frequencies of these gastric dysfunctions have never been evaluated in a homogeneous group of patients. We studied basal and pentagastrin-stimulated gastric acid secretion and gastric emptying of a radiolabeled caloric liquid meal in 99 consecutive male patients with endoscopically proven, active, uncomplicated duodenal ulcers. Compared to matched healthy subjects, ulcer patients presented increased basal and stimulated acid secretion (P less than 0.

Effects of short- and long-term administrations of famotidine and ranitidine on some pituitary, sexual and thyroid hormones.

The endocrine effects of short-term (4 weeks) and long-term (6 months) oral administration of famotidine (40 and 20 mg nocte, respectively) and ranitidine (300 and 150 mg nocte, respectively), were investigated in 20 male patients with duodenal ulcers. Basal PRL, LH, FSH and TSH serum levels were evaluated and their response to specific releasing factors, and basal blood levels of some sexual (E2, P, T) and thyroid (T3, T4) hormones. None of the treatments modified basal and RH-stimulated levels of PRL, LH, FSH and TSH, nor basal levels of sexual hormones.

Comparison between two different posologies of ranitidine on 24-hour gastric acidity in duodenal ulcer patients.

Eight outpatients with active duodenal ulcer, endoscopically proven, entered a controlled double-dummy cross-over study aimed at comparing the effects of ranitidine 150 mg b.i.d.

The role of colloidal bismuth subcitrate in the short-term treatment of duodenal ulcer.

Colloidal bismuth subcitrate (CBS) is a drug used in the treatment of duodenal ulcer; it acts mainly by increasing mucosal resistance against endoluminal aggressive agents, without inhibiting gastric secretion. In previous clinical trials, CBS solution induced healing rates significantly higher than placebo and similar to those observed with cimetidine. In spite of these promising results, the drug has never been widely employed, mainly because of its unpleasant taste, which greatly reduced patient compliance.

The evolution of anti-ulcer therapy with cimetidine. Is a single large nocturnal dose of cimetidine the right therapy for duodenal ulcer?

Peptic ulcer results from the prevalence of agents causing endoluminal lesions over the defence mechanisms of the mucosa of the upper GI tract. Particularly, in the case of duodenal ulcer, the pathogenetic relevance of non-buffered acid secretion of the early nighttime period has been emphasized. This is indeed confirmed by the fact that a single night dose of 800 mg cimetidine has apparently been proved able--in numerous controlled clinical trials--to provide results that are similar to those obtained with the classic dose of 1 g daily or 400 mg twice daily.