A Trial of Exogenous Secretin in the Treatment of Duodenal Ulcer Pain

Abstract

Höj, L., Holst, J. J. & Rune, S. J. 1973. A Trial of Exogenous Secretin in the Treatment of Duodenal Ulcer Pain. Scand. J. Gastroent. 8, 279-281.

In 15 patients with duodenal ulcer and 9 patients with X-ray negative dyspepsia, the effectiveness on upper epigastric pain of a subcutaneous injection of 37.5 clinical units of pure natural secretin was tried in a doubleblind test against an injection of saline, applying a cross-over, random allocation design. II of 15 ulcer patients were relieved after secretin while 6 found saline effective. Of the 9 patients with dyspepsia without a demonstrable ulcer, 3 found relief after secretin and 2 after saline. Neither of these differences are statistically significant at the 5 % level. Although we are inclined to suspect a type 2 - or β error (i.e. failing to demonstrate an effect which actually does exist), we must conclude that exogenous secretin was not superior to saline in the treatment of duodenal ulcer pain.

Key-words::

• Duodenal ulcer
• dyspepsia
• secretin