Abstract: Objective To analyze the clinical effect of Chinese medicine QIJIALIFEIJIAONANG in treatment of new pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) as adjuvant therapy retrospectively.  Methods One hundred and twenty-eight new PTB patients who received standard treatment regimen of 2S(E)HRZ/4HR and QIJIALIFEIJIAONANG as adjuvant therapy in Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital from July 2012 to July 2013 were enrolled as the treatment group, and 112 cases of new PTB patients only treated by the standard regimen were enrolled as controls. Their sputum smear and culture outcome, imaging data, the grading score of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndromes before and after treatment were recorded and analyzed statistically. The change of positive smear and culture outcome, effect on imaging, foci absorption, the change of cavity before and after treatment, and foci absorption and effect on TCM syndromes after anti-TB drugs were compared between the two groups, P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results At the end of treatment, the sputum smear negative conversion rate and sputum culture negative conversion rate of treatment group were 87.2% (41/47) and 83.9% (47/56), and those of control group were 87.8% (36/41) and 85.7%(42/49). The both differences of the two groups were not statistically significant (χ²=0.007, P=0.936; χ²=0.065, P=0.800). The foci absorption degrees of 128 cases in the treatment group were as follows: 10 cases (7.8%) showed significant absorption, 64 cases (50.0%) absorption, 27 cases (21.1%) no change, 27 cases aggravation (21.1%), those for control group were 8 cases (7.1%) significant absorption, 35 cases (31.3%) absorption, 40 cases (35.7%) no change and 29 cases (25.9%) aggravation. The differences between the two groups were statistically significant (Z=―2.290, P=0.022).The foci absorption rate was significantly higher in treatment group (57.8%, 74/128) than the control group (38.4%, 43/112) (χ²=8.979, P=0.003). The numbers of case with cavity closure, narrowing, no change and widening in treatment group were 16 (48.5%), 9(27.3%), 5 (15.1%) and 3(9.1%), and those for control group were 12 (48.0%), 8(32.0%), 3(12.0%) and 2(8.0%). There was no significant difference of cavity changing in imaging between the two groups (Z=-0.110, P=0.912). There were more cases with continual foci absorption in the treatment group (31/74, 41.9%) than control group (10/43, 23.3%) 3 months after the end of the treatment (χ²=4.150,P=0.042). There were 11 cases (14.9%) with foci absorption in treatment group, and 3 cases (7.0%) in control group 6 months after the end of the treatment, there was no significant difference between the two groups (χ²=1.606, P=0.205). There was significantly better effect in improving TCM syndromes in the treatment group than control group（Z=-2.723, P=0.006). The overall effective rate for TCM syndromes in treatment group was 90.6% (116/128), which was significantly higher than that in control group (81.3%,91/112) (χ²=4.427, P=0.035).   Conclusion The QIJIALIFEIJIAONANG is effective in treating tuberculosis as adjuvant therapy, especially in improving TCM syndromes and the foci absorption in lungs.

Key words: Tuberculosis, pulmonary/Zhong yao liao fa, Antitubercular agents (TCD), Reinforcing qi nourishing yin, Retrospective studies