Effects of crude rhubarb on intestinal permeability in septic patients

The therapeutic effect of crude rhubarb on intestinal permeability was investigated in septic patients. Forty septic patients were enrolled in this study and randomly divided into two groups: the crude rhubarb treatment group (n = 18) and the control group (n = 22). The same treatments were given to both groups except that the crude rhubarb treatment group was administrated with crude rhubarb powders (3 g, tid, p.o). The levels of procalcitonin, D-lactate in plasma and lactulose/mannitol (L/M) ratio in the urine were determined on the first day and the sixth day after treatment with or without crude rhubarb. There were no significant differences in procalcitonin, L/M ratio and D-lactate on the first day between the crude rhubarb treatment group and the control group (p > 0.05). However, the ratio of L/M on the sixth day for the control group was 0.167 +/- 0.036, while that of the crude rhubarb treatment group was 0.062 +/- 0.013 (p < 0.05). Moreover, the levels of procalcitonin and D-lactate in the crude rhubarb treatment group were obviously lower than those in the control group on the sixth day (procalcitonin: 4.11 +/- 1.40 microg/L vs. 2.21 +/- 0.61 mug/L; D-lactate: 0.24 +/- 0.06 ng/L vs. 0.09 +/- 0.03 ng/L, p < 0.05, both). These data confirmed that crude rhubarb's effects on septic patients of ameliorating intestinal permeability.