Clinical Efficacy of Chinese Herbal Medicine in the Treatment of Chronic Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura

INTRODUCTION: Idiopathic thromobocytopenic purupra (ITP) is an immune-mediated hematologic disorder, which is characterized by bleeding tendency with low platelet count. ITP has acute and chronic forms. The patients with acute ITP usually have promising outcome, whereas chronic ITP, occurring most commonly in young women, is usually associated with fluctuating clinical course. It has been estimated that 14,000- 16,000 new cases of ITP occurred per year in USA. High-dose dexamethasone and immunoglobulin are the initial treatment for ITP. However, the refractory cases may require immunosuppressive or even splenectomy to reach acceptable platelet levels. These conventional therapies carry considerable side effects. Hence, patients with chronic ITP may seek for alternative therapies. Chinese herbal medicine has shown promising outcomes in the treatment of chronic ITP in recent clinical studies. OBJECTIVE: This presentation aims to give a comprehensive review on the clinical efficacy of Chinese herbal medicine in the treatment of chronic ITP. METHOD: The literature search was conducted from the databases of Pubmed, Google Scholar, and VIP. Clinical controlled trials were retrieved from the databases above for the evaluation of their clinical efficacy and safety. No language limitation was implanted. RESULT: In this review, the response rates of the intervention groups in most studies were higher than 85% and superior to the control group. Conclusion and Discussion: The overall quality of the study design was poor in most studies. Hence, large-scaled well-designed randomized controlled trials were required to establish the clinical efficacy of Chinese herbal medicine in the treatment of chronic ITP.