Clinical study on the efficacy of Dancao Huoxue prescription in alleviation of herpes zoster neuralgia by regulating inflammatory response

Abstract

Objective To study the expression levels of IL-1β and IL-10 in the serum of patients with herpes zoster and their correlation with the visual analog score (VAS), and to observe the efficacy of Dancao Huoxue prescription for herpes zoster neuralgia and its impact on inflammatory response. Methods Thirty patients with herpes zoster were treated with both Dancao Huoxue prescription and penciclovir while 30 patients treated with penciclovir alone served as controls. Both effective rates and VAS were compared between these two groups. Serum levels of IL-1β and IL-10 were compared between 60 patients with herpes zoster and 40 normal controls. Correlations of IL-1β and IL-10 with VAS were also analyzed. Results Although VAS was decreased in both the treatment and the control groups, a more dramatic decrease was observed in the treated group (t=-3.72, P0.05 between these two groups), but were higher than in normal controls (P<0.01 vs. patients with herpes zoster). In patients with herpes zoster, serum levels of IL-1β correlated positively with VAS (r=0.86, P<0.01), while IL-10 levels correlated negatively with VAS (r=-0.81, P<0.01). Conclusions Dancao Huoxue prescription can effectively alleviate herpes zoster neuralgia, likely via regulation of inflammatory response. IL-1β and IL-10 levels can be used as biomarkers to assess the severity of pain.

Keywords

• herpes zoster
• interleukin-1β
• interleukin-10
• neuralgia
• dancao huoxue prescription