[A clinical research on renal protective effect of Xuebijing injection in patients with sepsis]

To evaluate the protective effect of Xuebijing injection against renal injury in patients with sepsis, and to explore its possible mechanism.

A prospective randomized controlled trial (RCT) was conducted in which 62 severe patients with sepsis and septic shock admitted in Department of Critical Care Medicine of Jiangsu Province Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital from June 2013 to December 2013 were randomly divided into control group and Xuebijing group, with 31 patients in each group. The patients in both groups received basic treatment for sepsis, and the patients in Xuebijing group were additionally given intravenous injection of Xuebijing 100 mL once a day for 7 days. In both groups, the changes in acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II (APACHE II) score were observed before treatment and 1, 3, 7 days after treatment, and the changes in the levels of interleukins (IL-6, IL-10), prothrombin time (PT), fibrinogen (Fib), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), serum creatinine (SCr), and Cystain C (Cys C) were determined before treatment and 1 day and 3 days after treatment.

There was no statistically significant difference in APACHE II score before treatment between two groups, however, the APACHE II scores were significantly decreased in both groups 3 days and 7 days after treatment compared with those before treatment, and the degree of decrease in Xuebijing group was more obvious 7 days after treatment (13.61±7.62 vs. 16.34±8.70, P < 0.05). Serum concentrations of Cys C, SCr, IL-6, IL-10, PT, APTT, and Fib showed no difference between two groups before treatment (all P > 0.05), while after treatment the degrees of improvement of above indexes in Xuebijing group were obviously superior to those in control group, especially 3 days after treatment[Cys C (mg/L): 1.12±0.11 vs. 1.35±0.14, SCr (μmol/L): 115.0±31.0 vs. 135.0±24.0, IL-6 (ng/L): 54.27±28.79 vs. 73.35±31.01, PT (s): 13.50±0.11 vs. 15.71±0.11, APTT (s): 43.66±0.31 vs. 48.03±0.55, Fib (g/L): 1.91±0.51 vs. 1.51±0.52, P < 0.05 or P < 0.01].

Xuebijing injection has certain renal protective effect in patients with sepsis, and its mechanism is possibly related to the regulation and improvement of uncontrolled inflammatory response and coagulation function in sepsis.