Analysis on symptomatic factors of rheumatoid arthritis and its correlation with therapeutic efficacy.
- Author:
Yi-ting HE
1
;
Qing-lin ZHA
;
Xiao-ping YAN
Author Information
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- MeSH: Adult; Arthritis, Rheumatoid; drug therapy; Diagnosis, Differential; Drug Therapy, Combination; Drugs, Chinese Herbal; therapeutic use; Factor Analysis, Statistical; Female; Humans; Male; Medicine, Chinese Traditional; Methotrexate; therapeutic use; Middle Aged; Phytotherapy; Sulfasalazine; therapeutic use
- From: Chinese Journal of Integrated Traditional and Western Medicine 2005;25(12):1077-1081
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
OBJECTIVETo analyze the symptomatic factors of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and to explore the correlations between these factors and the efficacy of TCM herbal and western medicinal therapies.
METHODSFour hundred and thirteen patients with confirmed diagnosis as active RA came from 9 clinical centers were randomly divided into the Western medicine (WM) treated group (n=204) and the traditional herbal medicine (CM) treated group (n=209). The scheme of WM therapy included administration of voltaren extended action tablet, methotrexate and sulfasalazine. That of CM therapy included basic treatment and medication by syndrome differentiation. Eighteen items of often seen symptoms of the patients were collected before and after treatment. The therapeutic effect was evaluated by the American College of Rheumatology 20% improvement (ACR 20) and all data were analyzed using SAS 8.2 statistical software package. The category of symptoms was analyzed by factor analysis. The correlation of changes of various common factors with the therapeutic efficacy were analyzed by one-way ANOVA test.
RESULTSFour common factors were obtained from the 18 items of symptoms, which could better reflect respectively the local status of arthritis, and symptoms of Cold-syndrome, Asthenia-syndrome and Heat-syndrome in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Both CM and WM therapies showed consistent effect on the common factors that reflects the state of RA, but CM therapy showed superior effect on the common factors to improve Asthenia-syndrome to that of WM therapy.
CONCLUSIONFactor analysis could be used to categorize and study the important factor symptoms in the syndrome differentiation of TCM, and the results of factor analysis were in accord with the category of TCM syndrome differentiation. The exploration on the correlation of common factor and therapeutic efficacy could better exhibit the characteristics of TCM efficacy.