title: Prognostic value of serum pepsinogen I in children with peptic ulcer.
abstract: Serum pepsinogen I (PG I) levels were determined by radioimmunoassay in 23 children with peptic ulcer disease (PUD) before and after treatment with ranitidine and in 44 children who were being investigated for recurrent abdominal pain. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy was performed in all. No lesions were detected in controls, while 18 patients showed a duodenal ulcer, 4 had an antral ulcer, and 1 had both. An 8-week course of ranitidine healed PUD in 93.5% of them, while long-term (1-5 years) endoscopic follow-up showed a 41.9% ulcer relapse rate after stopping treatment. Gastric acid secretion after pentagastrin stimulation [maximal acid output (MAO)] was tested in all controls and in 22 PUD patients: While controls had normal MAO values for their age, 65% of patients had a secretion above the normal range. No significant correlation was detected between serum PG I and MAO either in controls or in patients. Mean serum PG I concentrations were not significantly higher in the whole patient group than in controls, but PUD patients who relapsed after discontinuing ranitidine treatment had shown on admission significantly higher PG I levels when compared both with those who did not relapse and with controls. All patients who relapsed, but only 42.8% of those who did not, had a serum PG I concentration above the normal upper limit for a pediatric population (56.7 ng/ml). None of the PUD patients who had serum PG I levels under this limit relapsed. Our results suggest that pretreatment serum PG I levels in children with PUD may predict fairly accurately which will not relapse after attaining ulcer healing by a short-term ranitidine course.
authors.affiliation: Sezione di Gastroenterologia, Università di Torino, Italia.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Oderda
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Altare
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dell'Olio
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ansaldi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005744:Gastric Acid / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010435:Pepsinogens / Q000097:blood*; D010437:Peptic Ulcer / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000201:enzymology*; D011379:Prognosis; D011899:Ranitidine / Q000627:therapeutic use; D012008:Recurrence
chemical_list: D010435:Pepsinogens; D011899:Ranitidine