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Data Mining Study on Prescription Patterns of Different Dosage Forms of Chinese Herbal Medicines for Treating and Improving Immune-Inflammatory Indices in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

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Abstract

Objective

To explore the prescription patterns of different dosage forms of Chinese herbal medicines (CHMs) for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and their effects on immune-inflammatory indices.

Methods

Clinical data were collected from patients with RA in 4 hospitals (3 Class A comprehensive hospitals and 1 Class B comprehensive hospital) in Anhui Province, China, from August 2012 to June 2018 via the electronic medical record gathering system. Following extraction of prescription information, each prescribed herb was quantified and standardized according to the knowledge base to establish a database of RA treatment formulae. The medical records were divided into the granules group and decoction pieces group. Core herbs and their combination patterns were obtained from the two groups of cases using Liquorice software. Changes in immune-inflammatory and hepatic and renal function indices were compared between the two groups using SPSS 23.0 software. The Aprior module of SPSS Clementine 11.1 software was applied to analyse the correlation between CHMs and improvement in indices. Finally, the ORACLE 10 g tool was used to evaluate the random walk model of the immune-inflammatory indices between the two groups.

Results

(1) We retrospectively analysed 35,898 prescriptions for 6,829 patients with RA who received CHM treatment. There were 3,816 patients in the granules group and 3,013 in the decoction pieces group. (2) The core herbs were Pi (Spleen)-strengthening and dampness-resolving drugs, blood-activating and stasis-resolving drugs, wind/dampness-dispelling drugs and heat-clearing and detoxifying drugs. (3) Both dosage forms could improve immune-inflammatory indices in RA patients, with similar efficacy and no influence on hepatic or renal function. (4) Herba Siegesbeckiae and Oldenlandia had a stronger association with immune-inflammatory indices in the two groups. (5) The immune-inflammatory indices showed obvious improvement after treatment with granules and decoction pieces of CHMs, and there were long range correlations between the comprehensive evaluation indices and interventions.

Conclusions

The principal CHM treatment methods for RA in four hospitals in Anhui Province are strengthening Pi and resolving dampness, activating blood and resolving stasis, dispelling wind/dampness and clearing heat. Granules and decoction pieces of CHMs have similar efficacy in improving immune-inflammatory indices in RA patients and could be used as treatment options for RA.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Rheumatology, First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, Hefei, 230031, China

    Dan Huang,  Jian Liu & Ling Xin

  2. The School of Management, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Jin-gui Xie

  3. Anhui Jiren Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Bozhou, Anhui Province, 236800, China

    Qiang Zhu & Pei-sheng Chen

  4. Department of Acupuncture, Huangshan Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Huangshan, Anhui Province, 245000, China

    Zhi-bin Shen

  5. Department of Internal Medicine, Bozhou Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Bozhou, Anhui Province, 236800, China

    Qing-he Meng & Hai-yan Wang

Authors
  1. Dan Huang
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  2. Jian Liu
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  3. Ling Xin
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  4. Jin-gui Xie
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  5. Qiang Zhu
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  6. Pei-sheng Chen
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  7. Zhi-bin Shen
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  8. Qing-he Meng
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  9. Hai-yan Wang
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Contributions

Liu J conceived of and designed the study; Huang D wrote the manuscript; Xin L provided technical support for the data mining; Huang D and Xin L extracted and analysed the data; Xie JG provided guidance on the analysis and writing; and Zhu Q, Chen PS, Shen ZB, Meng QH, and Wang HY identified subjects and the collected clinical data.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jian Liu.

Ethics declarations

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest associated with this work.

Additional information

Supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology (No. 2018YFC1705204), the Major Science and Technology Project of Anhui Province (No. 17030801009), the Key Research and Development Projects of Foreign Scientific and Technological Cooperation planned in Anhui Province (No. 201904b11020011), the Anhui Provincial Laboratory of Internal Medicine Application and Development of Modern Chinese Medicine (No. 2016080503B041), the Construction Project of LIU Jian Studio of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Anhui Province (Secretary of Development of Traditional Chinese Medicine [2018] No. 11), and the 12th Batch of the “115” Innovation Team in Anhui Province (No. 1 [2019] of the Anhui Talent Office)

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Data Mining Study on Prescription Patterns of Different Dosage Forms of Chinese Herbal Medicines for Treating and Improving Immune-Inflammatory Indices in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

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Huang, D., Liu, J., Xin, L. et al. Data Mining Study on Prescription Patterns of Different Dosage Forms of Chinese Herbal Medicines for Treating and Improving Immune-Inflammatory Indices in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis. Chin. J. Integr. Med. 28, 215–222 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11655-020-3480-1

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