title: [Effect of modified huopo xialing decoction in treating pi-wei dampness-heat syndrome and its impact on the tongue epithelial cell apoptosis].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study the effects of modified Huopo Xialing Decoction (HXD) in treating patients of Pi-Wei dampness-heat syndrome (PWDHS) and its impact on epithelial cell apoptosis of tongue.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifty patients with PWDHD were randomized depending on their visiting sequence into two groups, the 30 patients in the treatment group treated with HXD and the 20 in the control group treated with Domperidone. The therapeutic course for both groups was 2 weeks. Besides, a normal control group consisting of 30 healthy volunteers was set up. The changes of tongue fur, grade of major syndromes in different groups were observed and scored before and after treatment to evaluate the therapeutic effectiveness, and the apoptotic index (AI) was estimated using TUNEL technique.
  
  
  RESULTS
  AI in the two patient groups before treatment was obviously lower than that in the normal group (P < 0.01 or P < 0.05); after treatment, AI in the treatment group increased significantly (P < 0.01), with no difference from that in the normal group (P > 0.05), while in the control group, it only showed a slight trend of increasing. Similar outcome of tongue fur grades was seen in the two groups, it was improved significantly (P < 0.01) in the treatment group but insignificantly in the control group (P > 0.05). After treatment, syndrome scores were both lower in the two groups (P < 0.01), but the decrement in the treatment group was more significant than that in the control group (P < 0.01). Comparison between groups showed that the total effective rate in the treatment group was significantly superior to that in the control group (90% vs 65%, P < 0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  HXD has good clinical efficacy in treating PWDHS, and has good effect in alleviating the greasy yellow tongue fur in patients with PWDHS by accelerating the tongue epithelial cell apoptosis.
authors.affiliation: Chinese Medicine Department, First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning.
authors.forename: Dong-Ting
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Zhuo
authors.forename: Jun-Ying
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Li-Ping
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000187:drug effects*; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000187:drug effects*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional; D008875:Middle Aged; D008517:Phytotherapy; D014059:Tongue / Q000166:cytology
chemical_list: D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal