Objective?To investigate the relationship between syndromes of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and lung function in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) at stable phase. MethodsBased on diagnostic criterion of TCM, five groups of symptoms of TCM about stable COPD were established including lung Qi deficiency, lung and spleen Qi deficiency, lung and kidney Qi deficiency, lung Spleen Kidney Qi deficiency, and deficiency of both Qi and Yin. A total of 300 cases which were up to the standard were differentiated into 5 groups by the symptoms. Some basic details and lung function of the patients were recorded, and then statistical analysis was performed to analyze the differences of lung function among groups. ResultsForced expiratory volume in the first second in descending order was lung Qi deficiency group, lung and spleen Qi deficiency group, lung and kidney Qi deficiency group, and lung spleen kidney Qi deficiency group (P<0.05). ConclusionThese findings suggest that with the progressing of COPD, the symptom type of TCM for COPD patients at stable phase may vary from lung Qi deficiency to lung and spleen Qi deficiency, or to lung and kidney Qi deficiency, and even lung, spleen and kidney Qi deficiency. Lung function tests help reveal substance and pathogenesis of TCM syndromes of patients with stable COPD, and provide evidence for the clinical syndrome.
ObjectiveTo systematically review the clinical effect and safety of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in the treatment of cough variant asthma (CVA). MethodsWe searched MEDLINE (Ovid), PubMed, EMbase, The Cochrane Library, VIP, WanFang Data, CNKI and CBM databases to collect randomized controlled trials (RCTs) about TCM for CVA from inception to May 2014. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias of included studies. Then meta-analysis was performed by RevMan 5.2 software. ResultsA total of 17 RCTs were included. The results of qualitative analysis showed that:in improving cough symptom, three of four RCTs showed that TCM was superior to western medicine alone. In improving airway hyper responsiveness and overall treatment effect, the difference between TCM and western medicine alone remained uncertain. No serious adverse reactions related to TCM was reported in 17 RCTs. ConclusionBased on the current evidence, some trials suggest the TCM is superior to western medicine alone in improving cough symptom, however in the improvement of airway hyper responsiveness and overall efficacy, the difference between TCM and western medicine alone remains uncertain. Due to the variety of TCM and western medicine as well as limited methodological quality and different intervention of the included studies, more high-quality RCTs with large scale are needed to verify the above conclusion.