Effects of Ramadan fasting on acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding due to peptic ulcer

Background: as, acid negatively affects duodenal and gastric mucosal defense, we designed this study to investigateif fasting during ramadan can promote peptic ulcer and its complication, acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding.methods: all patients files who had admitted to hospital with acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding from 10th day oframadan till one month later, in 2002 to 2004 were reviewed. patients were divided into two groups: fasting group whowere fasting, at least 10 days before admission and non-fasting group.results: a total of 236 patients were included in the study; fasting group involved 108 subjects and non-fasting group128 ones. both groups were matched regarding sex, predisposing factors and underlying diseases. fasting groupshowed more frequent duodenal ulcer (38%) compared to non-fasting group (19.5%) (p = 0.002). the frequency of esophagealvarices was significantly higher in non-fasting group. there was no correlation between fasting and othercauses of gastrointestinal bleeding. in fasting group 38%, and in non-fasting group 18.9%, had previous dyspepticsymptoms (p = 0.001). two groups were similar regarding prognostic factors.conclusion: it seems ramadan fasting can increase acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding due to duodenal ulcer, but itdoes not make its prognosis poorer than that in non-fasting patients. dyspeptic symptoms could be considered as alarmingsigns for patients who want to fast during ramadan.