To observe the effect of total glucosides of paeony (TGP) combined with methotrex-ate (MTX) on rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
Two hundred and sixty patients were assigned to two groups, the treated group (180 cases) was orally administered with MTX plus TGP, and the control group (80 cases) with MTX plus sulfasalazine (SSZ). The therapeutic course for both groups was 24 weeks. The clinical effect and the indexes for RA were observed after treatment.
The total effective rate at the 4th, 8th, 12th, 24th week of the treatment was 70%, 81%, 94%, 98% in the treated group, and 60%, 85%, 93%, 94% in the control, respectively, with insignificant difference found between the two groups (P > 0.05). Various indexes of RA were markedly improved in both two groups after treatment but the improvement in the treated group was better than that in the control group (P < 0.05).
TGP combined MTX treatment shows favorable effect on RA, showing a quicker initiation with less side-effect and higher compliance.