Effect of Ginseng Injection on Congestive Heart Failure and Thyroid Hormones

Objective: To observe the effect of Ginseng injection on congestive heart failure (CHF) and its influence on thyroid hormones.Methods: Fifty-four patients of CHF were divided into two groups. On the basis of conventional treatment of western medicine, the Ginseng injection was given to the treated group additionally. Blood level of triiodothyronine (T3), thyroxine (T4), reverse triiodothyronine (rT3) and thyroid stimulating hormone of all patients were determined before and after treatment by radioimmunoassay.Results: There were significant difference between the treated group and the control group in cure rate and mean course of therapy. The levels of T3 and T4 of all patients were lower than those of the normal control before treatment, and rT3 were higher. Two weeks after treatment, T3 and T4 level in all patients increased significantly and rT3 level significantly decreased (P < 0.05,P < 0.01).Conclusion: Ginseng injection has a good effect on patients with CHF. It also has regulatory effect on thyroid hormones.

Clinical Observation on Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Treated with Combined Therapy of Radiotherapy and Ginseng Polysaccharide Injection

To observe the effect of radiotherapy (RT) combined with ginseng polysaccharide (GSP) injection in treating nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and its influence on immune function.Methods: One hundred and thirty-one patients of NPC were randomly divided into two groups, the RT-GSP group (n=64) treated with RT and GSP, and the control group (n=67) treated with conventional radiotherapy, to observe the local cancer remission rate, 1-year total survival rate, no tumor survival rate and no remote metastasis survival rate. Moreover, the changes of T-lymphocyte subsets, natural killer cell (NK) activity and lymphokine-activated killer cell (LAK) activity before and after treatment were determined.Results: Clinical examination conducted 3 months after treatment showed that the complete remission rate in the RT-GSP group was 96.6%, and in the control group 93.3%, the complete remission rate of cervical lymph node metastasis in the two groups was 85.7% and 78.0%, the NPC remission rate shown by CT 60.3% and 51.7%, respectively. Re-examination carried out 1 year after treatment showed that the total survival rate in the two groups was 100% and 96.5%, tumor free survival rate 84.4% and 74.6%, and no remote metastasis survival rate 93.8% and 88.1% respectively. The activity of NK cell and LAK cell as well as T3, T4 value in peripheral blood increased significantly in the RT-GSP group (all P<0.05) after treatment, while with the control group, no significant influence on NK and LAK activities were shown but significant lowering of T3, T4 was, P<0.05. No toxic-adverse reaction of GSP was found.Conclusion: GSP has certain immune function improving effect in NPC patients during RT, and it could also eliminate the occurred adverse reaction to RT and improve the general condition of patients.