[Effects of Chinese herbal medicine for Yiqi Yangyin Quyu in treating Sjögren's syndrome and on patients' immunologic function].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the immuno-regulatory and therapeutic effects of Chinese herbal medicine for Yiqi Yangyin Quyu (YYQ, supplementing qi, nourishing yin, removing blood stasis) on Sjögren's syndrome (SS). METHODS: Sixty-two patients were randomly divided into the treated group (37 cases) treated with Chinese medicine and prednisone, and the control group (25 cases) treated with prednisone alone, and another 20 healthy persons were taken as the normal control group. Curative effects was observed, and immunoglobulin (Ig) and T lymphocyte subsets were detected before and after 3 months' treatment. RESULTS: Immunoglobulin (IgG, IgM and IgA) before treatment in SS patients were higher, while the proportion of natural killer (NK) cell and CD4 were lower as compared with those in the normal control group. After treatment, IgG, IgM and IgA lowered to normal levels (P < 0.05), the proportion of NK cell and CD4 rose in both groups (P < 0.05), but CD3 in the control group was still lower than that in the treated group (P < 0.05). The total curative effective rate in the treated group was 91.9%, better than that in the control group (76.0%, chi-squared = 3.92, P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Chinese herbal medicine for YYQ could improve clinical curative effective rate and regulate immune function in SS patients.