Clinical significance of gastric juice viscosity in peptic ulcer patients.

We developed a simple method of determining gastric juice viscosity using a cone plate viscometer and tested its clinical application in the staging of peptic ulcers. We found a significant positive correlation between viscosity and macromolecular glycoprotein concentration of gastric juice (P less than 0.001). Gastric juice viscosity in active and healing gastric ulcer patients was significantly lower than that in the scarring stage or hospital control patients (P less than 0.05 and P less than 0.01, respectively). In duodenal ulcer patients, a significant difference was found between the active and healing stages and hospital controls (P less than 0.01). However, the difference between the active and healing stages and the scarring stage was not significant. Gastric juice viscosity is a simple, reliable, clinically useful measure.