Pilot Study of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Qing-Re-Liang-Xue Decoction) as Complementary Medicine for Psoriasis Vulgaris of Blood-heat Syndrome.

Pilot Study of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Qing-Re-Liang-Xue Decoction) as Complementary Medicine for Psoriasis Vulgaris of Blood-heat Syndrome.

Psoriasis is a non-contagious erythematous scaly skin disease characterized by epidermal proliferation and inflammation. The etiology is related to heredity, infection, allergies, metabolic disorders and autoimmunity. The incidence of psoriasis in the survey was about 1.2‰ in 1984 in China, and 2.6% in the United States. In recent years, the incidence of psoriasis has been on the increase trend, mostly in the young to middle age adults, and it can last a lifetime. The characteristic of the disease is that it usually spreads all over the body, or gradually aggravates, or is fixed and difficult to subside,or the disease course is long, lingering and difficult to heal, and it brings great harm to the patient's body and mind. At present, there is no effective treatment for psoriasis. Although western medicine has good short-term curative effects, prolonged use is not advocated because of adverse side effects and poor long-term effects. Besides, it is easy to relapse and aggravate after stopping the medicine. Psoriasis belongs to the category of "baibi" in Chinese medicine. Doctors of the past dynasties mostly treated it from blood heat, blood stasis, and blood deficiency syndrome. Researcher Zhu Renkang believes that "blood with heat" is the main cause of psoriasis and famous TCM dermatologists such as Zhang Zhili, Gu Bohua, Xu Yihou and others all regard "blood-heat syndrome" as the basic pathogenesis of psoriasis. We used Qingre Liangxue Recipe Granules to observe the treatment of 31 patients with blood-heat type psoriasis vulgaris, and found that the PASI index of the patients after treatment was significantly lower than before treatment (P <0.01), and the serum VEGF level was significantly decreased (P < 0.01), the correlation analysis between the two showed a significant correlation. This study aims to further evaluate the efficacy and safety of Qing-Re-Liang-Xue Decoction in comparison with commonly used glucocorticoids and calcipotriol ointment in patients with blood-heat type psoriasis vulgaris.

This is a multi-center, randomized, open-label, controlled pilot study of Traditional Chinese medicine (Qing-Re-Liang-Xue Decoction) as a complementary therapy to treat psoriasis vulgaris of blood-heat syndrome during a 10-week period. We estimate to enroll 200 subjects (treatment group(N=100); controlled group(N=100)).

Inclusion Criteria:

• 18-65 years;
• Had a diagnosis of psoriasis vulgaris for ≥6 months;
• TCM syndrome evaluation belongs to blood-heat type patients: it is more common in the advanced stage of psoriasis. Symptoms: skin lesions develop faster, skin lesions are bright red, blood loss is obvious, scales are dry and thick, itching is severe; upset, and thirsty, dry stool; red-purple tongue, yellow fur, string or slippery or rapid pulse;
• Patients without serious primary diseases, such as cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, liver, kidney and hematopoietic system or mental illnesses;
• Those who are willing to cooperate and can persist in the treatment without interruption;
• During the treatment period, those who have not taken or used other psoriasis drugs externally.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients with serious primary diseases, such as cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, liver, kidney and hematopoietic system or mental illnesses;
• History of immunosuppressant medication in the past three months;
• Those who use other drugs during treatment or stop treatment on their own and have incomplete observation data;
• Pregnancy or risk of pregnancy, and/or lactation;
• Aged ≤18 or ≥65 years old;
• Patients with other types of psoriasis, such as articular, pustular, and erythroderma.