Screening for variants in TPMT did not reduce the proportions of patients with hematologic ADRs during thiopurine treatment for IBD. However, there was a 10-fold reduction in hematologic ADRs among variant carriers who were identified and received a dose reduction, compared with variant carriers who did not, without differences in treatment efficacy. ClinicalTrials.gov number: NCT00521950.

A double-blind, multicenter, randomized study was performed in 75 patients with endoscopically documented reflux esophagitis. Patients were randomly given 1 g sucralfate four times a day or the combination of sucralfate three times a day and 300 mg ranitidine after dinnertime. Endoscopy was performed at the beginning of the study, after 8 weeks, and, if, the reflux esophagitis was not healed, after 16 weeks. Four patients had to be excluded from evaluation; 71 patients could therefore be evaluated. Both groups showed symptomatic improvement to similar extents. Endoscopy showed symptomatic improvement in 67% of the patients treated with sucralfate and in 74% of the combination therapy group. Complete healing or Savary-Miller stage 1 was seen in 26.5% and in 31.4%, respectively. We conclude that sucralfate monotherapy in patients with milder forms of reflux esophagitis is comparable with a combination of sucralfate during the day and ranitidine after dinnertime. This study does not support the commonly used combination of sucralfate and H2-receptor antagonists in reflux esophagitis.