ABSTRACT
Objective To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of treating active ankylosing spondylitis with total panax notoginseng saponins (PNS). Methods sixty-two patients were randomly recruited into a control group and a treatment group, with thirty-one patients in each group. All patients were treated with the routine therapy of NSAIDs and DMARDs. The treatment group was given PNS additionally, with 400mg PNS joined with 200ml normal saline being intravenously dripped daily. The therapeutic course was 14 days for both groups. The observation items for evaluation included symptoms, signs, and side effects. Results Compared with previous state before treatment, the lumbosacral portion pain and the count of joint pain was reduce, the time of morning stiffness was shortening, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and C-reaction protein (CRP) were all significantly reduced (P<0.05) ; There were significant differences in the total effectiveness rates between the two groups (P<0.05) ; while no notable difference was found in adverse drug reaction between the groups (P>0.05). Conclusion It is effective that treating active ankylosing spondylitis with PNS plus NSAIDs.