ISSN:
1365-2036
Source:
Blackwell Publishing Journal Backfiles 1879-2005
Topics:
Medicine
Notes:
Background : Patients with endoscopy-negative reflux disease have reflux symptoms, mainly heartburn, but not mucosal breaks characteristic of erosive oesophagitis. Standard-dose proton pump inhibitors can provide symptom relief in endoscopy-negative reflux disease but the effect of greater acid suppression has not been studied.Aim : To test the hypothesis that esomeprazole produces heartburn resolution in a greater proportion of patients with ENRD than omeprazole.Methods : Three multi-centre randomized, controlled, double-blind, 4-week acute treatment studies were conducted in endoscopy-negative reflux disease patients. In study A (n = 1282), patients received either esomeprazole 40 mg, esomeprazole 20 mg or omeprazole 20 mg daily; in studies B (n = 693) and C (n = 670) patients received either esomeprazole 40 mg or omeprazole 20 mg (B), and esomeprazole 20 mg or omeprazole 20 mg (C), respectively.Results : Resolution of heartburn at 4 weeks (no heartburn symptoms during the last 7 days) was achieved in similar proportions of patients in each treatment arm in study A (esomeprazole 40 mg, 56.7%; esomeprazole 20 mg, 60.5%; omeprazole 20 mg, 58.1%), study B (esomeprazole 40 mg, 70.3%; omeprazole 20 mg, 67.9%) and study C (esomeprazole 20 mg, 61.9%; omeprazole 20 mg, 59.6%). There were no significant differences between treatment groups within each study.Conclusions : More than 60% of endoscopy-negative reflux disease patients reported heartburn resolution but, after 4 weeks of therapy, these proportions did not differ significantly between treatments.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2036.2004.02085.x
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