[Influence of integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine therapy on serum resistin levels in patients with severe acute pancreatitis: a randomized controlled trial].

BACKGROUND: Resistin level is high in patients with severe acute pancreatitis (SAP), and resistin is expected to be a new marker for evaluating the severity of acute pancreatitis. OBJECTIVE: To explore the influence of integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine therapy on serum resistin levels in SAP patients. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS AND INTERVENTIONS: Twenty-eight SAP patients meeting inclusion criteria from Department of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University were included, and the patients were randomly divided into treatment group and placebo group. There were 13 patients in the treatment group and 15 patients in the placebo group. Patients in the treatment group were given traditional Chinese herbal medicine in addition to the conventional treatment. Patients in the placebo group were given placebo in addition to the conventional treatment. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The serum resistin levels on admission, and days 1, 3, 5, and 7 after the admission were detected. RESULTS: The serum resistin levels on admission in all the patients were higher than normal level, and there was no significant difference between the two groups (P>0.05). On days 1, 3, 5, and 7 after admission, the resistin levels in the treatment group were (3.29 + or - 1.66) microg/L, (3.71 + or - 1.05) microg/L, (3.08 + or - 1.47) microg/L and (3.62 + or - 1.67) microg/L, and in the control group (5.16 + or - 1.93) microg/L, (5.07 + or - 1.53) microg/L, (4.88 + or - 1.47) microg/L and (5.12 + or - 1.48) microg/L, respectively. The resistin levels were lower in the treatment group than in the control group (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Serum resistin level in SAP patients can be decreased by integrated traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine therapy.

[Simultaneous determination and pharmacokinetic studies of ferulic acid and paeoniflorin in human serum by high performance liquid chromatography after oral administration of Modified Xiao-yao Decoction].

OBJECTIVE: To simultaneously determine the contents and explore the pharmacokinetics of ferulic acid and paeoniflorin by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) after oral administration of Modified Xiao-yao Decoction (MXYD), a compound of traditional Chinese herbal medicine. METHODS: A total of 8 healthy men were enlisted in this study. The serum samples were preprocessed by immersion method. The HPLC system was used to determine the contents of ferulic acid and paeoniflorin in the blood samples of the 8 healthy volunteers, and the blood was collected through the ulnar vein at 5 min, 10 min, 15 min, 30 min, 45 min, 1 h, 2 h and 3 h after MXYD administration. The dates of serum concentration-time were fitted by using the 3P97 analytical program of pharmacokinetics. The internal standard (IS) was coumarin. The detection wavelengths of paeoniflorin and ferulic acid were 230 nm from 0 min to 10 min and 320 nm from 10 min to 25 min respectively. RESULTS: After MXYD administration, paeoniflorin and ferulic acid were separated completely in the serum and no other interfering peaks were found in the spectrum of the chromatograms. The retention times of the paeoniflorin and ferulic acid were 8.02 min and 13.32 min respectively, and that of the coumarin was 19.14 min. The mean recovery rates of paeoniflorin and ferulic acid were 100.9% and 95.3% with relative standard deviation (RSD) of 3.2% and 3.4%, respectively. The calibration curve for paeoniflorin was linear over the concentration range 40-1 280 ng/ml. Its low-detection limit based on a signal-to-noise ratio of 3 was 5 ng/ml and low-concentration limit was 15 ng/ml with an RSD of 12.5%. Ferulic acid was in the range 10-320 ng/ml; its low-detection limit was 0.65 ng/ml and low-concentration limit was 5 ng/ml with an RSD of 9.7%. The method was found to be highly precise, with an RSD<5% and interday and intraday variability in the range of 92.1%-109.9% for each of the concentrations tested. CONCLUSION: This is a study on simultaneously determining paeoniflorin and ferulic acid in serum of healthy volunteers after oral administration of MXYD. The assay is suitable for identifying the serum levels of ferulic acid and paeoniflorin in clinical investigations.