A clinical study of improvement of immunologic function in patients with old age sepsis treated by astragalus injection / 中国中西医结合急救杂志

ABSTRACT

ObjectiveTo evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of astragalus injection on the immune function in patients with senile sepsis.Methods Sixty patients with old age sepsis in Critical Care Medicine Department of Guangdong Provincial Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital were enrolled and randomly assigned into control and treatment groups according to the table of random numbers, 30 cases in each group. According to 2012 sepsis guidelines for treatment, including antibacterial drug, mechanical ventilation, visceral function support, etc., the therapy was given to the control group; besides the treatment in the control group, intravenous drip of 60 mL astragalus injection(10 mL per ampoule) in 250 mL 0.9% normal saline was additionally given in the treatment group, once a day for 7 days. Before and after treatment, the immunological indexes, acute physiology and chronic health evaluationⅡ(APACHEⅡ) score, sequential organ failure assessment(SOFA) score, duration of mechanical ventilation and time of stay in intensive care unit(ICU), 28-day mortality and adverse drug reactions were compared between the two groups.Results Before treatment, there were no statistically significant differences in CD3+, CD3+CD4+, CD3+CD8+ and T helper cells /T suppressor cells(Th/Ts)levels between the two groups(allP>0.05), while CD3-NK+ of the control group was significantly higher than that in the treatment group〔(10.47±6.22)% vs. (6.26±4.13)%,P0.05). After treatment in the treatment group, IgG was increased compared with that in the control group〔IgG(g/L) 13.07±5.43 vs. 10.10±3.96,P 0.05〕. The differences in IgA, IgM, complement(C3,C4) and total serum complement activity(CH50) in the comparisons between the two groups had no statistical significance after treatment(allP>0.05). The differences in APACHEⅡ score(13.83±6.18 vs. 15.90±7.48), SOFA score(7.38±4.66 vs. 6.89±4.19), time of stay in ICU(day 11.63±5.13 vs. 13.62±8.08), invasive ventilation time(hour 155.44±119.68 vs. 224.08±174.15) and noninvasive ventilation time(hour 55.55±42.24 vs. 98.57±43.17) had no statistical significance in comparisons between the treatment group and control group after treatment(allP>0.05). The difference in 28-day mortality had no statistical significance in comparison between the treatment group and control group〔16.7%(5/30) vs. 20.0%(6/30),P>0.05〕. In 60 cases, there were 2 patients with adverse drug reaction, one diarrhea and another little rashes, the rest of the patients did not appear any drug side effect.ConclusionAstragalus injection combined with conventional western medicine therapy possibly has certain effect on adjustment of disturbance of immunologic functions in old patients with sepsis, and its therapeutic safety is well.