Positive Health Online

Abstract

SHI and COLLEAGUES, 1 Institute of Basic Research in Clinical Medicine, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100700, China; 2 National Resource Center for Chinese Materia Medica, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100700, China;          3 Guang'anmen Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100053, China; 4 Xiyuan Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100091, China; 5 China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100700, China;    6 China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100700, China. Huangluqi01@126.com conducted a non-randomized controlled trial to study the efficacy and safety of Chinese herbal medicine versus Lopinavir-Ritonavir in adult patients with coronavirus disease 2019:

Background

Treatments for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are limited by suboptimal efficacy.

Methodology

From January 30, 2020 to March 23, 2020, we conducted a non-randomized controlled trial, in which all adult patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 were assigned to three groups non-randomly and given supportive treatments: Group A, Lopinavir-Ritonavir; Group B, Huashi Baidu Formula (a Chinese medicineformula made by the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences to treat COVID-19, which is now in the clinical trial period) and Lopinavir-Ritonavir; and Group C, Huashi Baidu Formula. The use of antibiotics, antiviruses, and corticosteroids was permitted in Group A and B. Traditional Chinese medicine injections were permitted in Group C. The primary outcomes were clinical remission time (interval from admission to the first time the patient tested negatively for novel coronavirus or an obvious improvement was observed from chest CT) and clinical remission rate (number of patients whose clinical time was within 16 days/total number of patients).

Results

A total of 60 adult patients with COVID-19 were enrolled at sites in Wuhan, China, and the sample size of each group was 20. In Groups A, B and C, the clinical remission rates were 95.0%%(19/20), 100.0%%(20/20) and 100.0%%(20/20), respectively. Compared with Groups A and B, the clinical remission time of Group C was significantly shorter (5.9 days vs. 10.8 days, p < 0.05; 5.9 days vs. 9.7 days, p < 0.05). There was no significant difference among Groups A, B, and C in terms of the time taken to be released from quarantine. The clinical biochemical indicators and safety indexes showed no significant differences among the three groups.

Conclusion

Our findings suggest that Lopinavir-Ritonavir has some efficacy in the treatment of COVID-19, and the Huashi Baidu Formula might enhance this effect to an extent. In addition, superiority was displayed in the treatment of COVID-19 through a combination of the Huashi Baidu Formula and traditional Chinese medicine injection. In future, well-designed prospective double-blinded randomised control trials are required to confirm our findings.  Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier GmbH.

References

Nannan Shi  1 , Lanping Guo  2 , Bin Liu  1 , Yongjun Bian  3 , Renbo Chen  1 , Suping Chen  3 , Yang Chen  3 , Yingying Chen  4 , Xiaodong Cong  4 , Guoju Dong  4 , Jing Guo  3 , Lijie Hu  5 , Jianxin Jiang  4 , Luxing Leng  3 , Bin Li  4 , Dongxu Li  3 , Hao Li  4 , Jing Li  4 , Li Li  1 , Jia Liu  1 , Cheng Lu  1 , Wenliang Lv  3 , Qing Miao  4 , Wensheng Qi  3 , Zhan Shi  1 , Jiaheng Shi  3 , Huaxin Shi  5 , Yaxin Tian  1 , Bing Wang  4 , Gang Wang  4 , Jian Wang  3 , Wei Wang  3 , Yongyue Xian  4 , Xiaolei Xie  4 , Yibai Xiong  1 , Chunyan Xu  4 , Ming Xu  4 , Bei Yan  3 , Jinliang Yang  3 , Li Zhang  4 , Zhenqi Zhou  4 , Haoning Zhu  4 , Luqi Huang  6. Efficacy and safety of Chinese herbal medicine versus Lopinavir-Ritonavir in adult patients with coronavirus disease 2019: A non-randomized controlled trial

Phytomedicine ;81:153367. Epub Oct 8 2020 doi: 10.1016/j.phymed.2020.153367.  Jan 2021.