Effect of indomethacin and phenylbutazone-prednisone combination of gastric mucosa: gastroscopic and histological study

Abstract

The effect of a phenylbutazone-prednisone combination and indomethacin on the anatomical state of the gastric mucosa were studied by gastroscopy, gastrophotography, and gastrobiopsy. All four patients examined had redness of the antral mucosa after administration of either drug. Intramucosal gastric haemorrhage was present in two patients after both phenylbutazone-prednisone combination and indomethacin. Mucosal erosions occurred in three cases after the phenylbutazone-prednisone combination, one of them slight, and in two cases after indomethacin. On histological examination, increased intramucosal haemorrhage could be seen in the specimens from all four patients after indomethacin, and in the specimens from three patients after the phenylbutazone-prednisone combination. There was considerable mucosal vasodilatation in one patient on the phenylbutazone-prednisone combination and in two patients on indomethacin. The effects of both drugs on the gastric mucosa were similar. None of the subjects suffered from abdominal symptoms during the drug administration.