Effect of integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine on gout

To evaluate the curative effect of integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine on gout, and to investigate the therapy timing and exact treatment options of integrated medicine.

Totally 860 patients were enrolled, including 460 patients with intermittent gout, 200 patients with active Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) syndrome (TCM syndrome score ≥ 6) and 200 patients with stable TCM syndrome (score < 6). They were randomly divided into intervention and control groups. The control group was treated according to Western Medicine guidelines. The intervention group was treated with integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine. The efficacy of TCM syndrome, joint pain score, joint swelling score, ESR, C-reactive protein, serum uric acid, liver and kidney function, and the duration of remission of TCM syndrome were compared between the two groups before and after treatments.

For the patients with stable TCM syndrome, there was no significant difference in the effective rate and inefficiency between the intervention group and the control group. For the active type, the effective rate of the intervention group is better than the control group significantly. For the stable type, there was no significant difference between the intervention group and the control group in improving the scores of joint pain and swelling, reducing the level of ESR, C-reactive protein, serum uric acid and improving liver and kidney function. For the active type, the differences between the two groups were significant. The stable stage of gout in the intervention group was longer than the control group.

For the gout patients with stable TCM syndrome in the acute stage of gout, we can use TCM treatment or Western Medicine alternatively; for the patients with active TCM syndrome, the scheme of combination of Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine can be applied, with the better curative effect than any medicine alone.