Intervention of liuwei dihuang pill on lupus nephropathy treated with cylophosphamide and glucocorticoids / 中国中西医结合杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the intervening effect of Liuwei Dihuang pill (LWDH) on lupus nephropathy (LN) treated with glucocorticoids and cyclophosphamide (CTX).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Sixty-four patients were randomly divided into two groups, all patients were treated by conventional treatment, using prednisone in standard program, and CTX in a daily dose of 8 - 12 mg/kg, accumulated dose < or = 150 mg/kg, by adding into 500 ml of 5% glucose in saline through intravenous dripping, as well as the symptomatic treatment. Patients in the treated group were given LWDH additionally.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The curative effect in the treated group was significantly superior to that in the control group (P < 0.05). Laboratory indexes, including urinary protein, plasma protein and serum creatinine (SCr), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), complement C3, etc. were significantly improved in both groups (P < 0.01), but all the improvement, except that of SCr, in the treated group were superior to those in the control group respectively (P <0.05 or P <0.01). Besides, the recurrent rate and incidence rate of adverse reaction in the treated group was significant lower than those in the control group (P < 0.05 and P < 0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>LWDH can significantly enhance the therapeutic effect of CTX and glucocorticoids on LN, decrease the recurrence and shows advantage in counteracting against the adverse effects of glucocorticoids and CTX.</p>