No significant clinical value by adding on Jin-gu-lian Capsule in rheumatoid arthritis therapy: a real world study

Objective: To investigate the clinical value of adding on Jin-gu-lian Capsule (JGL) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treatment on disease activity and quality of life (QoL) by a real world study (RWS). Methods A RWS was conducted to compare the inflammatory markers including IgM-RF, ESR and CRP between RA patients treated with western medicine only (reference group) and adding on JGL (study group) for one year of following up. The data was acquired from hospital information system (HIS). Telephone call based following up on QoL (SF-36), and accompanied symptoms including gastrointestinal complaints, attack of pneumonia ect. Finally, the anti-rheumatic drugs in both groups were also compared. And this RWS was further validated its feasibility by ruining the flow on hydroxychloroquine (HCQ). Results The study group failed to show better controlling effect on inflammatory markers, especially the CRP levels indicated it may inferior to the reference group. At the ending point, no significant differences between the two groups on QoL and accompanied symptoms. The patients in study group might need more kinds of anti-rheumatic drugs to fill the treatment insufficiency, and the application ratio of NSAIDs was significantly higher than the reference group. By ruining this research flow on HCQ, the positive results of controlling disease activity and reducing NSAIDs application was discovered, which prove the feasibility of the RWS. Conclusions No significant clinical benefit by adding on JGL in rheumatoid arthritis therapy was observed.