Clinical Efficacy Of Dragon's Blood On The Treatment Of Erythema Of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Objective1. Evaluate the clinical efficacy of combined treatment of Dragon's Blood and western medicine in the treatment of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). Emphasis will be to evaluate the efficacy and clinical application of Dragon's blood in the treatment of erythema related skin lesions.2. Evaluate the effect of Dragon Blood to different TCM syndrome types. Discuss the clinical indications of the Blood-activiting Method in treating SLE.MethodsSixty-seven SLE patients were selected according to the inclusion criteria from Fuzhou General Hospital between January 2009 and February 2010. Patients were randomly divided into two groups:37 patients of the treatment group were treated with Dragon's Blood, prednisone and azathioprine.30 patients of the controlled group were treated with prednisone and azathioprine only. According to Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM) dialectic criterions, the treatment group were sorted into four patterns:the intense noxious heat syndrome type, the yin asthenia and internal heat syndrome type, the heat and stagnated blood syndrome type, and the retention of damp-heat syndrome type. All patients were given treatment for 30 days. The signs, symptoms, and laboratory results were observed before and after the treatment. Observations include before and after treatment comparisons of Systemic lupus erythematosus disease activity index (SLEDAI), erythema score, blood parameters WBC, HGB, ESR, PLT and FIB, immune indicators Ig G, alexin C3, alexin C4 and ds-DNA, and safety index. All data were analyzed by SPSS 13.0 for windows.Results1. The treatment group was superior to the controlled group in the total curative effect (97.30% VS 93.33%) after treatment (P<0.05).2. Both groups had decreased SLEDAI (P<0.05), but the treatment group's SLEDAI was lower than the controlled group after treatment (P<0.05).3. The treatment group was superior to the controlled group in treating TCM symptoms and signs (91.89% VS 80.00%) after treatment (P<0.05). There were no significant differences among the four types after treatment with Dragon's Blood (P>0.05).4. Both groups had sharp decreased the scores of erythrom (P<0.05), but the treatment group's scores was lower than the controlled group after treatment (P<0.05).5. The treatment group was superior to the controlled group in the erythrom's curative effect (83.78% VS 63.33%) after treatment (P<0.05).6. Significant differences (P<0.05) were shown in the skin area, color, infiltration, and photosensitization effects between treatment and control groups. However, there were no statistical differences in the treatment of desquamation(P> 0.05).7. Both groups had sharp decrease with regard to ESR, PLT, FIB,WBC,HGB after treatment (P<0.01), with the treatment group lower than the control group in ESR, PLT, and FIB (P<0.05).However, there were no statistical differences in the treatment of WBC,and HGB (P> 0.05).8. Both groups had sharp decrease with regard to IgG, C3, C4, ds-DNA after treatment (P<0.05), but there were no significant differences between the treatment group and the control group (P>0.05).Conclusions1. The therapeutic effect of combined therapy of western medicine and Dragon's Blood in treating SLE is superior to just western medicine. The combined therapy has shown significant improvement in skin lesions.2. The Dragon's Blood can improve the therapeutic efficacy of the four TCM patterns of SLE:the intense noxious heat syndrome type, the yin asthenia and internal heat syndrome type, the heat and stagnated blood syndrome type, and the retention of damp-heat syndrome type. The Blood-activiting method in treating SLE may worth further investigation.