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Patients who experience peptic ulcer bleeding (PUB) while taking low-dose aspirin have a high risk for recurrent bleeding if they continue aspirin. Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) can reduce this risk, but whether H2-receptor antagonists (H2RAs) are able to do so is unclear.
To address this issue, investigators in Hong Kong and Japan conducted a multicenter, randomized, double-blind trial involving 270 patients, with no evidence of Helicobacter pylori infection, who experienced PUB while taking aspirin (≤325 mg daily). After healing, patients resumed taking aspirin (80 mg daily) plus either a PPI (rabeprazole, 20 mg daily) or an H2RA (famotidine, 40 mg daily) for 12 months. Patients were followed every 2 months and underwent endoscopy for evid…