title: Effect of the herbal drug guilu erxian jiao on muscle strength, articular pain, and disability in elderly men with knee osteoarthritis.
abstract: Background. Guilu Erxian Jiao (GEJ) is a widely used Chinese herbal remedy for knee osteoarthritis, but its clinical efficacy is unknown. Methods. We enrolled 42 elderly male patients with knee OA, including 21 patients who received the herbal drug GEJ as the case group and 21 patients who did not receive GEJ as the control group. The effects of 12 weeks of GEJ treatment on muscle strength of lower limbs were measured by a Biodex dynamometer, with disability evaluated on the Lequesne index and articular pain measured on the visual analog scale (VAS) between the two groups on the baseline and after treatment. Results. There were significant increases in the levels of muscle strength of TQ/BW-ext-dominant and TQ/BW-flex-dominant between the two groups after treatment (P < 0.05). There were also significant increases in muscle strength of knee extensor muscles in the GEJ-treated group (n = 21) self-controlled before and after 12 weeks of treatment (all P < 0.01). There were significant decreases in articular pain (P < 0.01) and Lequesne index scores (P < 0.01) in the GEJ-treated group when compared to the non-GEJ-treated group. Conclusions. Our results showed that GEJ is effective and is tolerated well in elderly men with knee OA.
authors.affiliation: Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, 1650 Taiwan Boulevard, Section 4, Taichung, 40705, Taiwan ; College of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University, No. 91, Hsueh-Shih Road, Taichung, Taiwan 40402, Taiwan ; Hungkuang University, No. 1018, Section 6, Taiwan Boulevard, Shalu District, Taichung 43302, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chen-Chen
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.affiliation: Division of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, 1650 Taiwan Boulevard, Section 4, Taichung 40705, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yin-Yi
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Chou
authors.affiliation: Division of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, 1650 Taiwan Boulevard, Section 4, Taichung 40705, Taiwan ; Faculty of Medicine, National Yang Ming University, No. 155, Section 2, Linong Street, Taipei, 112, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yi-Ming
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, Taichung Veterans General Hospital 1650 Taiwan Boulevard, Section 4, Taichung 40705, Taiwan ; School of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, No. 110, Section 1, Jianguo North Road,Taichung 40201, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yih-Jing
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Biostatistics Task Force of Taichung Veterans General Hospital, 1650 Taiwan Boulevard, Section 4, Taichung 40705, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Hui-Ching
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.affiliation: Division of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, 1650 Taiwan Boulevard, Section 4, Taichung 40705, Taiwan ; Faculty of Medicine, National Yang Ming University, No. 155, Section 2, Linong Street, Taipei, 112, Taiwan ; Institute of Biomedical Science, National Chung Hsing University, 250 Kuo Kuang Road, Taichung 402, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Der-Yuan
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Chen