Clinical Investigation Of Treating Takayasu Arteritis By Fuzheng Quxie Tongmai Method

Objective: To observe the therapeutic efficacy of Fuzheng Quxie Tongmai method(which is a method of integration of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Western Medicine) in treating Takayasu arteritis(mainly brachiocephalic artery).Methods: Seventy-two patients, who suffered from Takayasu arteritis(mainly brachiocephalic artery) and were in hospital during October of 2013 and December of 2014, were selected from Shijiazhuang Great Wall Hospital of Intergrated Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM) and Western Medicine for the clinical investigation of treating by Fuzheng Quxie Tongmai method. Comparison of therapeutic efficacy before and after treatment, as well as the method of a single center clinical trial design was employed in this study. The situation and treatment(only basic treatment of western medicine, which was a comprehensive treatment involving hormones, immunosuppressor, anti-inflammation, anti-platelet, improving microcirculation and so on) before admitted in this hospital of the seventy-two patients were used as control. After hospital admission, Fuzheng Quxie Tongmai Method, which was a TCM with per os(p.o.), was also employed, basing on the basic treatment of western medicine. The indexes of the seventy-two cases once after hospital admission and 4 weeks treatment as follows: vascular color Doppler ultrasound for assessing carotid artery, erythrocyte sedimentation rate(ESR), C reactive protein(CRP), fibrinogen(FIB), as well as the syndrome scoring of TCM, were all under detection and anlyzation.Results: The seventy-two cases of patients suffering from Takayasu arteritis chosen in this investigation were all with the brachiocephalic artery lesions, which consisted of twenty-nine cases of single brachiocephalic artery lesions and forty-three cases of mixed type, with the ratio of man and woman 1:7, furthermore, the average age of the seventy-two cases was 23.68±12.94.After four weeks of clinical observation, during the seventy-two patients treated by Fuzheng Quxie Tongmai Method, twenty-five cases were cured completely(with the ratio of 34.7%), twenty-six cases got better obviously(with the ratio of 36.1%), furthermore, twenty-one cases got better(with the ratio of 29.2%), while three cases felt that this method was invalid to them(with the ratio of 4.2%), therefore, the total effective rate was 95.8%(P<0.05).Through the detection of carotid artery by vascular color Doppler ultrasound, the rate of carotid artery stenosis was decreased significantly(P<0.05) after the treatment, with(84.35±4.77)% before the treatment and(50.55±6.04)% after the treatment. This result showed that the carotid artery stenosis was improved obviously by treatment of Fuzheng Quxie Tongmai method, which resulted in the better blood supply of the artery.The immunodectetion results showed that:ESR was reduced dramatically(P<0.05) after the treatment, with 40.68±22.52mm/h(before the treatment) and 15.08±9.79mm/h(after the treatment); Meanwhile, there was a pronounced reduction of CRP(P<0.05) after the treatment, which was 21.38±16.96mg/l, comparing to that of before the treatment, which was 5.54±4.40mg/l; Furthermore, FIB of the patients was also got decreased after treated by this method(P<0.05), with the data showed as follows: 4.14±1.26g/l(before the treatment) and 2.63±0.70g/l(after the treatment). All these data indicated that: the immune indexes were significantly improved by the treatment of this method(P<0.05), with subsequent control of the inflammatory activities in the patients accepted Fuzheng Quxie Tongmai method.The syndrome scoring of TCM found that, the score of symptoms and physical signs of the patients showed a pronounced reduction after treated by Fuzheng Quxie Tongmai method(P<0.05). Actually, those uncomfortable symptoms and physical signs, such as dizziness, blurred vision, feebleness, fever as well as aches in the neck were all ameliorated dramatically after the treatment, the radial artery pulse condition before and after treatment had no obvious difference(P>0.05).indicating that Fuzheng Quxie Tongmai method, the integration of TCM and western medicine, could effectively attenuated the uncomfortable symptoms, which resulted in the improvement of the quality of life. but for arterial pulsation and noise aspects of change is not obvious.Finally, the adverse reaction of the hormones and immunosuppressor also decreased dramatically with the treatment of Fuzheng Quxie Tongmai method, which is the integration of TCM and western medicine, furthermore, no abnormality of the function of liver and kidney had been detected throughout the investigation, meanwhile, adverse events, such as hemorrhage and osteonecrosis of the femoral head was occurred during the treatment. These results indicated that: Fuzheng Quxie Tongmai method was a safe clinical application, as it could significantly reduced the adverse reactions of hormones and immunosuppressors, therefore, this method had played an important role in reducing drug toxicity and enhancing therapeutic effects of the treatment.Conclusions: The current study confirmed the clinical therapeutic effects of Fuzheng Quxie Tongmai method in treating Takayasu arteritis, and also showed that it could significantly decrease the adverse reactions of hormones and immunosuppressors. In all, it is a safe and effective therapy, meanwhile, this investigation provided an objective evidence and effective data for the further clinical application and drug discovery.