Table 8.
Meta-analysis on effectiveness of cimetidine: rates of gastrointestinal bleeding in patients given cimetidine or placebo
| Reference | Bleeding rate*
|
Odds ratio (95% CI) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cimetidine | Placebo | ||
| Zinner et al29 | 14/100 | 20/100 | 0.66 (0.31 to 1.36) |
| Karlstadt et al30 | 1/54 | 7/33 | 0.10 (0.01 to 0.43) |
| Groll et al31 | 6/114 | 11/107 | 0.50 (0.18 to 1.32) |
| Halloran et al32 | 2/26 | 8/24 | 0.20 (0.04 to 0.78) |
| Peura et al33 | 1/21 | 7/18 | 0.11 (0.01 to 0.52) |
| Total | 24/315 (8%) | 53/282 (19%) | † |
*
Bleeding rates determined according to original definitions of this end point reported in studies; in trial by Halloran et al,32 in which two different definitions were given, we used rates of “marked” bleeding.
†
Summary odds ratio 0.37 (0.23 to 0.60), P<0.0001 for fixed effect model; 0.30 (0.13 to 0.68), P<0.004 for random effect model; χ2 for heterogeneity 8.0, df 4, P=0.09.