Beneficial effects and safety of traditional Chinese medicine for chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy: A case report and literature review

Yao Xie; Lesang Li; Le Xie; Junlin Jiang; Ting Yao; Guo Mao; Shiliang Wang; Anchao Lin; Jinwen Ge; Dahua Wu

doi:10.3389/fneur.2023.1126444

Beneficial effects and safety of traditional Chinese medicine for chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy: A case report and literature review

Front Neurol. 2023 Apr 6:14:1126444. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2023.1126444. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Yao Xie¹, Lesang Li², Le Xie¹, Junlin Jiang¹, Ting Yao¹, Guo Mao³, Shiliang Wang¹, Anchao Lin¹, Jinwen Ge¹, Dahua Wu¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurology, Hunan Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Changsha, China.
² Ophthalmology Department, Hunan Want Want Hospital, Changsha, China.
³ Office of Academic Research, Hunan Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Changsha, China.

Abstract

Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP) is an immune-mediated neuropathy. First-line treatments for CIDP include corticosteroids, intravenous immunoglobulin, and plasma exchange. However, the application is always limited by high costs, effectiveness, and adverse events. This study investigated a new potentially effective and safe therapeutic treatment to alleviate CIDP symptoms and improve the quality of life. In the present case, a 47-year-old rural woman presented with weakness and numbness of progressive extremities. She was diagnosed with CIDP based on abnormal cerebrospinal fluid and electromyography. The patient was treated with intravenous dexamethasone for 1 week and with Huangqi-Guizhi-Wuwu and Bu-Yang-Huan-Wu decoctions for 90 days. Surprisingly, after the treatment, the weakness and numbness were eliminated, and the quality of life improved. The varying INCAT, MRC, and BI scores also reflected the treatment effects. After 8 months of discharge, the symptoms did not relapse during the follow-up. We also searched "traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)" and "CIDP" in PubMed, EMBASE, the Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure Databases, Wanfang Data, and the Chongqing Chinese Science and Technology Periodical Database. Finally, only ten studies were included in the literature review. Three studies were randomized controlled trials, and seven were case reports or case series. There were 419 CIDP patients, but all study sites were in China. Nine TCM formulas involving 44 herbs were reported, with Huang Qi (Astragalus membranaceus) being the most important herb. In conclusion, the case and literature demonstrated that TCM treatment might be a more effective, low-cost, and safe option for treating CIDP. Although these preliminary findings are promising, a larger sample size and higher-quality randomized clinical trials are urgently required to confirm our findings.

Keywords: Astragalus membranaceus; case report; chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy; review; traditional Chinese medicine.

Publication types

Case Reports

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the General Project of the Health Commission of Hunan Province (No. 202218014505), the General Project of the Hunan Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (No. D2022060), the Hunan Province Clinical Medical Technology Innovation Guidance Project (No. 2021SK51001), and the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (No. 2022JJ40241).