Observation of hot therapy of Chinese herbal medicine combined with western medicine on rheumatoid arthritis in active stage

Objective To observe the effect of hot therapy of Chinese herbal medicine combined with western medicine on rheumatoid arthritis( RA) in active stage. Methods 68 RA patients were randomly divided into two groups. 34 cases in treatment group were treated by hot therapy of Chinese herbal medicine combined with western medicine. 34 RA patients in control group were treated by routine therapy alone. The effect in two groups was compared after 15 days of treatment. The changes of clinical indicators and laboratory indexes were observed before and after treatment. Results The total effective rate in treatment group( 88. 23%) was higher than that in control group( 67. 65%,P 0. 05). The duration of morning stiffness,joint tenderness,swollen joint count and hands average grip strength after treatment were improved as compared with those before treatment in two groups( P 0. 01). The improvement in treatment group was more obvious( P 0. 05). ESR,CRP,IL- 6 and TNF- α after treatment were decreased as compared with those before treatment in two groups( P 0. 01). The decrease in treatment group was more obvious( P 0. 05). Conclusion Hot therapy of Chinese herbal medicine can improve arthropathy in RA patients,with good effect,is worthy of clinical application.