Influence of Astragalus Injection on Pulmonary Function and Immune Function in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Objective To investigate the clinical efficacy of astragalus injection in the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD) on the basis of the routine treatment and further to explore its effect on pulmonary function and immune function.Methods Ninety-six cases of COPD were randomly divided into treatment group and control group with 48 cases for each group.Both groups were given the routine treatment including antibiotics,infection control,oxygen uptake,antiasthmatic drugs,etc,and the astragalus injection was added to the treatment group.The clinical efficacy as well as the improvement of lung function and the changes in the immune function(mainly T-lymphocyte subset change) before and after treatment in the two groups were observed.Results The efficiency of the treatment group was 91.67% and that of the control group was 79.17%,with a significant difference between the two groups(P0.05).The lung function was significantly improved in the treatment group after treatment compared with that before treatment(P0.01) and with that of the control group(P0.05).The control group showed no significant change in the immune function before and after treatment.CD3,CD4 and CD4.CD8 were increased in the treatment group after treatment,and CD8 was decreased.There was a significant difference in the days of hospital stay in the treatment group compared with the control group(P0.05).Conclusion The conventional treatment supplemented with astragalus for COPD can improve the lung function and enhance the tlymphocyte immune function,with no obvious side effects,which can be widely used.