As in duodenal and gastric ulcer patients, a highly significant correlation between suppression of 24-h intragastric acidity and healing rates in reflux oesophagitis patients was demonstrated by meta-analysis of data obtained from the literature (r = 0.90; p less than 0.001). Furthermore, we have demonstrated in eight patients with reflux oesophagitis that 2-week treatment courses with 300 mg ranitidine twice daily and 300 mg four times daily progressively decreased 24-h intraoesophageal acidity but only moderately elevated basal and meal-stimulated serum gastrin concentrations, significantly below gastrin values obtained after a 2-week treatment course with 20mg omeprazole once daily. Further studies are awaited to demonstrate long-term effects on both healing rates and serum gastrin responses with high doses of histamine H2-receptor antagonists.