[Clinical study of decoction of invigorating Qi and clearing lung combined standardized myrtol on acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD)].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the clinical effect of decoction of invigorating Qi and clearing lung combined standardized myrtol on acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD). METHOD: Ninety and eight patients with AECOPD patients were randomly divided into the treatment group and the control group, with 50 cases and 48 cases respectively. All the patients were given the conventional treatment. The control group was treated by standardized myrtol with 3 times a day, 300 mg each time taken orally. The treatment group was given decoction of invigorating Qi and clearing lung with 2 times a day, one dose per day taken orally, combined standardized myrtol (usage as above). After Two weeks, the scores of clinical symptom, blood gas analysis and pulmonary function were observed. RESULT: Both FEV1 and FEV1% were raised in the two groups after treating. And the treatment group was significantly higher than control group (P < 0.01). PaO2 and PaO2/FiO2 rose, with PaCO2 decreased in the two groups (P < 0.01). PaO2 and PaO2/FiO2 were significantly improved, and PaCO2 was significantly decreased in the treatment group compared to the control group (P < 0.01). In the clinical curative effect comparison aspects, clinical control rates were 42.0% in treatment group and 20.83% in control group respectively, with significant difference between the two groups (P < 0.05). Significant efficiency is 86.0% in treatment group and 52.08% in control group respectively, with significant difference between the two groups (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Decoction of invigorating Qi and clearing lung combined with standardized myrtol can obviously improve clinical symptom, blood gas an analysis and pulmonary function in patients with AECOPD.

Transdermal delivery of zidovudine: effect of terpenes and their mechanism of action.

The effect of various oxygen-containing monoterpenes such as cineole, menthol, alpha-terpineol, menthone, pulegone and carvone was investigated on ex vivo permeation of zidovudine (AZT) across rat skin. Furthermore, saturation solubility of AZT, its stratum corneum (SC)/vehicle partition coefficient and activation energy for diffusion across skin with or without terpene(s) in vehicle (66.6% ethanol in water) were determined to understand their mechanism of action. All the terpenes studied significantly increased transdermal flux of AZT in comparison to vehicle (p<0.05) and their enhancement activities are in the following decreasing order: cineole>menthol>menthone approximately pulegone approximately alpha-terpineol>carvone>vehiclewater. On the other hand, saturation solubility and SC/vehicle partition coefficient of AZT were not significantly altered (p>0.05) by terpenes. Activation energies of AZT permeation across rat skin from water, vehicle and cineole in vehicle were measured to be 20.4, 18.6 and 10.6 kcal/mol, respectively. Interactions between terpenes and SC lipids were studied with molecular modeling and found that terpenes form hydrogen bonds (bond lengths<2 A) with lipid head groups. The mechanism of permeation enhancement of AZT by terpenes was explained with thermodynamic activity, SC/vehicle partition coefficient, activation energy and molecular modeling studies.