Aim: To study clinical efficacy and antihelicobacter activity of combined treatment of duodenal ulcer (DU) with famotidin (qamatel), metronidasol (trichopol) and jozamycin (walpraphen).
Material and methods: A total of 96 patients with uncomplicated DU have been treated (mean age 42.5 +/- 1.5 years). The examination included standard tests, endoscopy, pH-metry (on the treatment days 1, 15 and 28), biopsies and prints from the antral stomach and its body. The sections were stained by Gimse for morphological assessment of duodenal mucosa and detection of Helicobacter pylori (HP). Gastric acid-producing function was examined with intragastric pH-metry. The patients were divided into 3 groups: group 1 received monotherapy with famotidin (20 mg twice a day); group 2 received combined treatment with famotidin (40 mg/day), metronidasol (500 mg twice a day), josamycin (300 mg in 3 doses) for a week with following intake of famotidin alone (40 mg/day) for 3 weeks; group 3 received the same treatment plus clarythromycin. Group 1 patients benefited from the treatment but elimination of pain and dyspeptic syndromes was longer than in groups 2 and 3 (p < 0.05). Ulcer healing to treatment day 28 was observed in 71.8, 90.0 and 88.2%, respectively. Side effects occurred in 0, 10 and 16.7% cases, respectively.
Conclusion: 1-week schemes of combined treatment with famotidin, metronidasol, josamycin or clarythromycin are highly effective in DU and their side effect rates are not very high.