Relationship Between The Travoprost Eye Drops And The Traditional Chinese Medicine Syndromes

Objective: Primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) is one of the most importantblinding disease. Either the patients’ families or the whole society has suffered a lotfrom its high rate of blindness and unrecoverable damage of visual function. So, thediagnosis and treatment of POAG has received extensive attention from the scholars. Itis noticed that, there is significant difference between the POAG patients on theresponse of drugs. And to make plans depends on drug-sensitivity has already been theinevitable trend. Studies today mainly focus on the genes, especially the singlenucleotide polymorphism (SNP). However, we shouldn’t ignore the influence of thenon-genetic factors at the same time. In this study, we attempt to introduce a"syndrome" from the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to obverse thedrug-sensitivity of the POAG patients. We wish that both doctors and patients couldbenefit from our research.Methods:55newly diagnosed patients with POAG were selected for the presentstudy. And all the cases were divided into two groups based on the TCM syndrome. Afour-weeks treatment was given with0.004%travoprost, and the intraocular pressure(IOP) was measured before and14or28days after the treatment. The efficacy wasfinally compared between the two groups in view.Results:1. The heat group accounted for72.73%of the total number (n=40) and the coldaccounted for27.27%(n=15). The number of the heat group was2.67times as much asthe cold.2. The baseline IOP of the heat group [(27.43±2.85) mmHg] was higher than the cold group [(25.20±2.57) mmHg], and the difference between the two groups wassignificant (P=0.011<0.05).3.14days after treatment, the IOP decreased of the heat group [(10.23±2.81)mmHg] was larger than the cold group [(8.33±2.41) mmHg], and the differencebetween the two groups was significant (P=0.025<0.05).4. The differences in the IOP and IOP decreasing amplitude were not significantbetween the two groups after14days’ treatment.5. The differences in the IOP, IOP decreased and IOP decreasing amplitude werenot significant between the two groups after28days’ treatment.Conclusion: The hot syndrome was in the majority of the55newly diagnosedPOAG patients, and the IOP was related to the TCM syndrome. But the relationshipbetween the reaction to the0.004%travoprost and the TCM syndrome was still notclear enough.