Introduction
This hospital located in the heart of West Virginia's coal industry has an unusually large number of patients with chronic pulmonary disease. The recent literature contains several articles suggesting an increased incidence of gastroduodenal ulceration in these patients.1-3We have had the clinical impression that patients with chronic pulmonary disease tend to have gastroduodenal ulceration more frequently than would be anticipated in the general population. To justify this impression, this study is presented.
Material and Method
The charts of all patients admitted to the medical teaching service from January, 1955, through April, 1958, were reviewed. There were 845 patients. This was considered a random sampling of general medical patients. The following information was abstracted from the records: (1) age, race, and sex; (2) symptoms, signs, x-ray, electrocardiographic, and laboratory evidence of chronic pulmonary disease,* and (3) symptoms, complications, and x-ray evidence of gastroduodenal ulceration.†Many of these