Gastric Acid Production in Infections

Excerpt

To the editor: In the June issue, Kisloff (1) presents the case of a patient whose gastric acid output was not influenced by cimetidine administration. This topic has interested us for some time since we first noted 11 critically ill patients who failed to maintain a gastric pH above 4 while receiving cimetidine (2). In February 1980, at the Annual Meeting of the Society of University Surgeons, we presented data accumulated from 77 critically ill patients suggesting that persistent failure of antacids or cimetidine or both together to maintain gastric pH above 4 is an indicator of infection (3)

The