RESUMO
This study was aimed to observe the effect of Pediatric Long-term Cough Decoction in the treatment of long-term cough among children. A total of 96 cases were diagnosed in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) as qi-yin deficiency, and lung-heat accumulation with constipation. The western medicine diagnosis was mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia (MPP) infection in the recovery period after chronic cough. All cases were randomly divided into the TCM group and control group, with 48 cases in each group. In TCM group, the Pediatric Long-term Cough Decoction was used to supplement qi and nourish yin, clear away the lung-heat and excrete feces. In the control group, montelukast was used. For both groups, clinical effect of score and CD4+ T lymphocytes, CD8+ T lymphocytes and CD4+/CD8+ ratio were observed one day before treatment and thirty days after treatment. The results showed that after thirty-day treatment, the clinical effect of score in both groups was obviously improved (P < 0.01). The TCM group was better than the control group (P< 0.01). Compared with pretreatment, the posttreatment CD4+ T lympho-cytes, CD8+ T lymphocytes and CD4+/CD8+ ratio in TCM group were obviously improved (P < 0.05). The CD4+ T lymphocytes and CD4+/CD8+ ratio in the control group were obviously improved (P < 0.05). However, there was no change on the CD8+ T lymphocytes. The regulation effect on CD4+ T lymphocytes and CD8+ T lymphocytes of TCM group was better than the control group (P< 0.01). It was concluded that the Pediatric Long-term Cough Decoction can effectively improve clinical symptoms of chronic cough in children and regulate immune function.