ABSTRACT
Objective To study the regularity changes in serum levels of C-reactive protein(CRP)and mannose-binding lectin(MBL)in patients of community acquired pneumonia(CAP)with different syndrome patterns of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM),and to explore the new objective markers to differentiate the syndrome patterns of TCM. Methods According to The Guideline on TCM diagnosis and treatment of CAP(2011 edition),104 patients with CAP were selected and their syndromes were cassified into 3 classes and 8 patterns of syndrome:excessive class〔including following patterns:wind-heat invading lung(fengrexifei),exopathic cold and interior heat(waihanneire), accumulation of heat in lung(tanreyongfei),accumulation of phlegm-dampness in lung(tanshiyongfei)〕,deficient vital QI leading to lingering of pathogen class〔qi deficiency of lung and spleen(feipiqixu),both qi and yin deficiency (qiyinliangxu)〕,TCM critical class〔heat falling into pericardium(rexianxinbao),pathogen invasion and vital qi deterioration(xiexianzhengtuo)〕. In the same period,after physical examinations,100 healthy volunteers were chosen as healthy control group. The serum levels of CRP and MBL were detected before treatment and after treatment for 4 days and 7 days. Results Among the 104 CAP patients,the most popular class of syndrome was the excessive one(63.5%),followed by deficient vital QI leading to lingering of pathogen(19.2%)and TCM critical class(17.3%). The serum CRP level in CAP patients at each time point was higher than that in healthy control group,which had a different tendency to change over time in different syndrome patterns of TCM. With the prolongation of treatment time,the serum CRP levels in fengrexifei and waihanneire patterns returned to a normal level on the 7th day(mg/L:13.51±11.48,7.07±1.84 vs. 6.96±2.19,both P>0.05),in feipiqixu and qiyinliangxu patterns the CPR levels were higher,but its descent rate was relatively fast,and on the 7th day it was approximately normal in spite of being higher than the level in healthy control group(25.25±25.90,18.17±23.19 vs. 6.96±2.19,both P<0.05);in tanreyongfei and tanshiyongfei patterns,although the CPR levels were decreased,they still maintained at relatively high levels on the 7th day after treatment(51.70±27.33,49.28±30.57),and no downtrend of CPR was seen in rexianxinbao and xiexianzhengtuo patterns. Before treatment,the serum MBL levels in CAP patients with fengrexifei,waihanneire, tanreyongfei,tanshiyongfei,feipiqixu and qiyinliangxu patterns were higher than the level in healthy control group, and in rexianxinbao and xiexianzhengtuo patterns,the levels were lower than those in other patterns and kept being at relatively lower levels along with the prolongation of the therapy. Conclusion Serum CRP can be used as a reference marker for different syndrome patterns of TCM in patients with CAP,and low serum MBL level was a risk factor of severe syndrome patterns of TCM and a poor prognosis in CAP.