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High-dose dual therapy is superior to standard first-line or rescue therapy for Helicobacter pylori infection

Yang JC, Lin CJ, Wang HL, Chen JD, Kao JY, Shun CT, Lu CW, Lin BR et al.

Clinical gastroenterology and hepatology : the official clinical practice journal of the American Gastroenterological Association, 2015

450 participants

Abstract

BACKGROUND & AIMS: The efficacy of treatment of Helicobacter pylori infection has decreased steadily because of increasing resistance to clarithromycin, metronidazole, and levofloxacin. Resistance to amoxicillin is generally low, and high intragastric pH increases the efficacy of amoxicillin, so we investigated whether a combination of a high-dose proton pump inhibitor and amoxicillin (dual therapy) was more effective than standard first-line or rescue therapies in eradicating H pylori.

METHODS: We performed a large-scale multihospital trial to compare the efficacy of a high-dose dual therapy (HDDT) with that of standard therapies in treatment-naive (n = 450) or treatment-experienced (n = 168) patients with H pylori infection. Treatment-naive patients were randomly assigned to groups given HDDT (rabeprazole 20 mg and amoxicillin 750 mg, 4 times/day for 14 days, group A1), sequential therapy for 10 days (group B1), or clarithromycin-containing triple therapy for 7 days (group C1). Treatment-experienced patients were randomly assigned to groups given HDDT for 14 days (group A2), sequential therapy for 10 days (B2), or levofloxacin-containing triple therapy for 7 days (C2). H pylori infection was detected by using the (13)C-urea breath test. We evaluated factors associated with treatment outcomes.

RESULTS: In the intention-to-treat analysis, H pylori was eradicated in 95.3% of patients in group A1 (95% confidence interval [CI], 91.9%-98.8%), 85.3% in B1 (95% CI, 79.6%-91.1%),…

How strong is the evidence?

Evidence Hub reads this as a randomized trial, done in people. Its evidence level is 2 of 5 (High · randomized trial). Randomized trials of a reasonable size are the strongest single-study design. Reported size: 450 participants or records.

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