[Herbal cake-partitioned moxibustion combined with Rhinocort spray is superior to Rhinocort spray alone in improving symptoms of moderate-severe allergic rhinitis patients].

OBJECTIVE

To observe the clinical effect of herbal cake-partitioned moxibustion combined with Rhinocort spray in the treatment of symptoms, sleep quality and daily life quality of patients with moderate-severe allergic rhinitis(AR)．.

METHODS

A total of 67 patients with persistent moderate-severe AR were recruited in the present study and randomized into a treatment group (＝35) and a control group (＝32). The patients in the treatment group were treated by herbal cake-partitioned moxibustion (applied to Dazhui [GV14], and bilateral Feishu [BL13], Shenshu [BL23] and Zhiyang [GV9], 3 moxa-cones/time, once every other day) plus Rhinocort spray (once in the morning and evening separately, 256 µg/d), and patients in the control group treated by Rhinocort spray alone (the same to that mentioned above). All the treatments were given for 4 weeks. The therapeutic effect was evaluated with reference to the "Principles and Recommended Schemes for Diagnosis and Treatment of AR" formulated by Otolaryngology Branch of Chinese Medical Association before and after the treatment. The severity of symptoms of AR was assessed by using visual analogue scale (VAS), the life quality of nasal conjunctivitis assessed using "Rhino-conjunctivitis Quality of Life Questionnaire (RQLQ)"， and the sleep quality assessed using "Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI)" before and after the treatment, followed by 3 months' follow-up survey.

RESULTS

After the treatment, the VAS and RQLQ scores in both groups and PSQI of the treatment group were significantly decreased in comparison with their own base-line levels of pre-treatment in each group (<0.05). The RQLQ and PSQI in the treatment group were substantially lower than those in the control group (<0.05). No marked difference was found between the two groups in VAS(>0.05). Follow-up survey showed that the VAS and RQLQ scores in both groups and PSQI of the treatment group were still significantly lower than those of pre-treatment in each group(<0.05), and the VAS, RQLQ and PSQI scores of the treatment group were significantly lower than those of the control group(<0.05). After 4 weeks' treatment, of the 32 and 35 AR patients in the control and treatment groups, 7 and 16 experienced marked improvement, 16 and 14 were effective, and 9 and 5 failed, with the effective rate being 71.9% and 85.7%, respectively. The effective rate of the treatment group was significantly superior to that of the control group (<0.05).

CONCLUSION

Herbal cake-partitioned moxibustion combined with Rhinocort spray has a good therapeutic effect in improving symptoms, sleep and quality of life in patients with persistent moderate-severe AR, which is obviously superior to that of Rhinocort spray alone in improving sleep and quality of life.