Chinese Medical Journal

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CURRENT CHINESE MEDICAL LITERATURE 91

ABSTRACTS

Clinical Experience in the Use of Coptis Teeta for Treatment of Bacillary Dysentery. Lo Lung-Chiang. Nat. Med. J. China 41(5): 452-455. 1955.

Bacillary dysentery was described by traditional Chinese physicians about two thousand years ago, and effective prescriptions for this disease have been in use for about seventeen hundred years. One of the drugs is Coptis teeta % i&. The Hangchow Isolation Hospital has made observations on the effect of Coptis teeta in the treatment of bacillary dysentery since 1951. The results in comparison with sulfonamides, streptomycin and bacteriophage are here presented.

The number of cases treated with Coptis teeta was 166. All the patients were adults except a 7 year old child. The duration of illness before treatment was from one to sixteen days. The clinical manifestations including stool examinations were typical for bacillary dysentery. Of the 166 cases, 87 gave positive stool cultures (mostly Flexner, a few Alcaligenes, Sonne and Schmitz). Coptis teeta was given by mouth (in a few cases it was changed to the intramuscular route during the course of treatment) in the form of extract (0.15 gm equivalent to 1 gm of the herb), 0.45-1.8 gm being given a day in three to six divided doses. The duration of administration was from five to seven days. The total amount of the extract given to each patient averaged about 6 gm. Retention enemas of 100-200 ce 2-3 per cent solution of Captis teeta in addition to the extract were given once or twice a day to several patients with severe tenesmus or persistent mucoid stools. Other measures included symptomatic treatment of abdominal pain and replacement of fluid in dehydrated patients. One patient received streptomycin. : F

The results of treatment with Coptis teeta and other drugs are tabulated below:

883 8 “8

Normal S Stool “ SubsiPTeahnient No. of frequency 7 aaa Se ee dence - eases of bowel Normal Completely Negative ial Om of fever movement color normal culture) Mea bain SNe eee ee Sulfonamides 80 3.7+day 4.—day 7.5—day 7 day 5.5 day 3tday Streptomycin 41 3 7 Ss 7 eso 45 ,, 3:6), Bacteriophage 30 35) 3.9 ipa ss 7 5 5:2 45 3:2, Coptis teeta 116 3.9— ,, 42— ,, 6.7- ,, 47 ,, 5.8 3.2 ,,

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All the patients treated with Coptis teeta were cured. None showed any toxic manifestation. As may be seen from the table, the stool cultures of the group of patients given Coptis teeta became negative more rapidly than the groups treated with sulfonamides, streptomycin or bacteriophage, while in other respects Coptis teeta was just as effective. 5

The results warrant the conclusion that Coptis teeta should be considered as a standard therapeutic agent for bacillary dysentery. H. P. Lei

Analysis of 4,269 Cases of Kala-Azar. Meng Hsien-Kao. Nat. Med. J. China 41(7):614619, 1955.

An analysis of the clinical features of 4,269 kala-azar patients is here reported. In all the patients L.D. bodies were found by diagnostic punctures of either the bone marrow, the lymph glands, the liver or the spleen. In order to ascertain the relative merit of the different diagnostic punctures, two of the above mentioned organs were punctured at one sitting in every case. The results showed that the highest positive rate was obtained in bone marrow puncture, and the lowest in lymph gland puncture.

The ratio of male and female kala-azar patients was 11:9, and the highest age incidence was in the group under 10 years of age. Two per cent of the 4,269 patients had the disease over two years and 80 per cent had it less than one year. An overwhelming