A study was conducted to analyze the available data to ascertain the relationship between suppression of acidity and ulcer healing for a single drug - ranitidine. The relationship between intragastric acidity suppression and the rate of duodenal ulcer healing was evaluated using data for from 156 clinical trials which included 16 362 patients, in addition to data on acid suppression obtained from 37 studies of intragastric acidity involving 630 subjects.

Ranitidine was administered in a dose range of 150 mg to 1200 mg per day across 9 different dosage regimens in the included studies.

The percentage suppression of 24-hr intragastric acidity induced by different dosage regimens of ranitidine highly correlated with the overall percentage of patients with healing of duodenal ulcers at 2 and 4 weeks on different regimens.

It was concluded that the therapeutic benefit of any particular ranitidine dosage regimen in healing duodenal ulcers is directly correlated with its antisecretory effect.

Decreasing intragastric acidity is significant for healing of duodenal ulcer during treatment with ranitidine, and there is a dose-response relationship over the dose range of 150 mg to 1200 mg per day.

Source: McIsaac RL, Dixon JS, Mills JG, Wood JR. Ranitidine in the treatment of duodenal ulcer disease: relationship between antisecretory effect and ulcer healing rate. Aliment Pharmacol Therap. 1991;5:227-243.