Chinese Herbal Medicine (Zi Shen Qing) for Mild-to-Moderate Systematic Lupus Erythematosus: A Pilot Prospective, Single-Blinded, Randomized Controlled Study

Table 4

Baseline demographic and clinical characteristics of the patients.

Characteristic	ZSQ group (𝑛=42)	Control group (𝑛=42)	𝑃 value
Age, yr	32.7 ± 13.6	34.8 ± 14.3	0.46
Education, yr	10.5 ± 3.7	10.6 ± 3.9	0.35
BMI, kg/m^2	22.1 ± 2.6	22.7 ± 3.1	0.44
Female (𝑛, %)	39 (92.8%)	38 (90.48%)	0.67
Disease duration, yr	4.7 ± 4.4	5.0 ± 4.6	0.79
Dosage of prednisone, mg/d	10.2 ± 6.4	10.6 ± 6.6	0.62
SLEDAI scores	10.5 ± 2.2	10.7 ± 2.1	0.51
SLE manifestations (𝑛, %)
Nephritis	32 (76.2%)	34 (81.0%)
Arthritis	20 (47.6%)	18 (42.9%)
Dermatitis	24 (57.1%)	21 (50.0%)	>0.05
Central nervous system	2 (4.8%)	1 (2.4%)
Lymphopenia	9 (21.4%)	8 (19.0%)
Thrombocytopenia	6 (14.3%)	7 (16.7%)
Pericarditis	1 (2.3%)	0 (0.0%)
Total scores of CMS	19.5 ± 3.9	19.7 ± 3.9	0.80
Anti-dsDNA (IU/mL)	89.8 ± 72.9	89.2 ± 80.5	0.63
C3 (g/L)	0.8 ± 0.3	0.8 ± 0.2	0.47
C4 (g/L)	0.2 ± 0.1	0.3 ± 0.1	0.61
IgG (g/L)	18.7 ± 5.4	17.9 ± 2.8	0.38
NK cell activity (%)	14.5 ± 8.8	14.0 ± 6.2	0.78
sIL-2R (pg/mL, PM)	40.8 ± 8.6	40.1 ± 14.8	0.80