title: Characteristics of patients with bleeding peptic ulcer requiring emergency endoscopy and aggressive treatment.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Patients with an ulcer and active bleeding or a nonbleeding, visible vessel are high-risk for further bleeding and should receive aggressive therapy. In this study, we tried to identify clinical parameters that predict these high-risk groups.
  
  
  METHODS
  Over a 7-month period, 16 clinical parameters were analyzed prospectively in 316 patients with bleeding peptic ulcer. A multivariate analysis was used to find the independent predictors for the high-risk patients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 114 patients (36%) was found to have a spurting hemorrhage (eight patients), oozing hemorrhage (27 patients), or a nonbleeding visible vessel (79 patients). Using an univariate analysis, a statistically significant predictor was the appearance of coffee ground fluid or blood from the nasogastric tube. This predictor also emerged as an independent factor (odds ratio, 0.4333; 95% confidence interval, 0.263-0.714).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patients with bleeding peptic ulcer who have coffee ground fluid or blood from the nasogastric tube should receive an emergency endoscopy and aggressive treatment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Veterans General Hospital-Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China.
authors.forename: C L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Perng
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: F Y
authors.initials: FY
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: S D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: C H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D004630:Emergencies; D005260:Female; D005773:Gastroscopy; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010438:Peptic Ulcer Hemorrhage / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012008:Recurrence; D012307:Risk Factors