OBJECTIVETo observe the therapeutic effect and mechanism of new percutaneous absorption herbal patch for asthma of paracmasis, and to optimize the form of the patch.

METHODSOne hundred and twenty cases of paracmasis asthma were randomly divided into medicine patch group, medicinal vesiculation group and western medication group with 40 cases for each. The new percutaneous absorption herbal patch was applied on medicine patch group. Traditional medicinal herbs cake of the hospital were applied on medicinal vesiculation group. Feishu (BL 13), Fengmen (BL 12) and Dazhui (GV 14) were adopted for both groups. Each patch was applied for 6 hours and once every other day. Accuhaler was applied on the western medicine group with 2 inhalations a time and twice a day. Clinical symptom scores, number of attacks and asymtomatic days were observed right before, after and half a year after the treatment. Meanwhile, the expression level of IgE, IL-4, GATA-3 mRNA and T-bet mRNA were observed and compared before and after the treatment.

RESULTSClinical symptom scores of all the 3 groups were improved (all P < 0.01). The differences of the total effective rate, number of attacks and asymtomatic days of all the 3 groups are without statistical significance (all P > 0.05). However, the long-term therapeutic effect in half a year after the treatment showed that the total effective rate of the medicine patch group was 80.0% (32/40), and the medicinal vesiculation group was 70.0% (28/40). Both of the them were obviously higher than 47.5% (19/40) of the western medicine group (P < 0.01, P < 0.05). And the medicine patch group surpassed the other 2 groups in controlling the number of attacks and increasing the asymtomatic days (P < 0.05, P < 0.01). The level of IgE and IL-4 of all the 3 groups decreased sharply after the treatment (P < 0.05, P < 0.01). And there was no statistic significance in differences among groups (all P > 0.05). The level of GATA-3 mRNA was obviously decreased, while the level of T-bet mRNA was obviouly increased in the medicine patch and medicinal vesiculation groups (P < 0.05, P < 0.01). And the medicine patch group had obvious superiority on increasing the level of T-bet mRNA when compared with the medicinal vesiculation and western medicine groups (P < 0.01, P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONIt is concluded that the new percutaneous absorption herbal patch has exact effect on asthma. The treatment may reverse the imbalance condition of Th1/Th2 through regulation on cell factor and its specific transcription factors.