Hemorrhagic duodenal ulcer disease: Clinical and biochemical findings in a case-control pilot study

A retrospective study of 31 consecutive bleeding duodenal ulcer (DU) patients and, as controls, 62 active DU subjects without bleeding episodes was conducted in order to ascertain whether bleeding DU patients have particular clinical or functional characteristics. The patients were followed for 15.6 and 17.4 months, respectively, after diagnosis. The following parameters were taken into account: sex, age, family history of ulcer, blood group (ABO system), ulcer pain, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) consumption, cigarette smoking, alcohol and coffee consumption, ulcer site, fasting serum gastrin and pepsinogen group A, basal acid output (BAO), and maximal acid output (MAO). Statistics were gathered using the Student's t test and Fisher's exact test. Bleeding DU patients had less ulcer pain (P < 0.0005) and used more NSAIDs (P < 0.05) than controls. All other clinical and functional data considered in both groups were comparable. Results showed that NSAID consumption was very dangerous in our DU patients even though bleeding episodes were observed. Usually no pain is felt immediately before hemorrhage, and cigarette smoking does not appear to affect this complication of DU.