OBJECTIVETo observe the clinical efficacy of Quyu Jiedu Recipe (, QJR) in treating endometriosis (EM), and to explore the levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and cell proliferative nucleoprotein antigen (Ki-67), their changes before and after treatment and the clinical significance in the trial.

METHODSFifty patients of EM were randomly assigned to two groups. The 26 patients in the QJR group were treated with QJR, and the 24 patients in the gestrinone (GT) group with gestrinone. Besides, a normal control group with 20 healthy women was set up. The therapeutic effects in the two treated groups were compared. Expressions of VEGF and Ki-67 in eutopic endometrium of all subjects (with both patients and healthy women at the median secretive phase) were determined with immunohistochemical stain before treatment, and the determination in the two treated groups was repeated after 3-month treatment in the same phase.

RESULTSBefore treatment, the VEGF and Ki-67 expression positive rates and their mean optic density (MOD) were higher in patients than in healthy women (P<0.05). After treatment, the positive rate and MOD of VEGF expression lowered significantly than before treatment (P<0.05), but those of Ki-67 changed insignificantly, and comparison between the two treated groups showed no significant difference (P>0.05).

CONCLUSIONQJR could markedly improve the symptoms of menorrhagia and menstrual disorder, and its mechanism might be related with the lowering of eutopic endometrial VEGF expression. VEGF and Ki-67 show a high expression in eutopic endometrium of patients with EM.