Effect of Lianhuaqingwen Capsules on Airway Inflammation in Patients with Acute Exacerbation of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Table 3

Levels of IL-8, TNF-𝛼, IL-17, and IL-23 in the sputum of the LHQW group, the conventional group, and subgroups before and after treatment.

		Total		High-risk subgroups		Low-risk subgroups
		LHQW group; (𝑛=50)	Conventional group; (𝑛=50)	LHQW group; (𝑛=25)	Conventional group; (𝑛=30)	LHQW group; (𝑛=25)	Conventional group; (𝑛=20)
IL-8	Before treatment; (mean ± SD, pg/mL)	578.32±200.27	582.70±185.18	651.14±159.52	636.89±163.70	502.02±213.45	525.44±177.32
	After treatment; (mean ± SD, pg/mL)	473.36±200.55^∗	545.02±168.19	547.01±192.51^∗	587.04±158.16	396.21±182.58	493.09±169.87
	𝑃 value	0.01	0.318	0.042	0.261	0.070	0.586
TNF-𝛼	Before treatment; (mean ± SD, pg/mL)	52.87±25.26	53.80±24.96	52.83±25.64	58.17±26.94	52.92±25.48	48.08±21.59
	After treatment; (mean ± SD, pg/mL)	36.78±20.17^∗∗	43.42±21.57^∗	37.02±21.05^∗	46.61±19.98	36.54±19.73^∗	39.76±23.72
	𝑃 value	0.001	0.026	0.029	0.065	0.022	0.251
IL-17	Before treatment; (mean ± SD, pg/mL)	49.51±22.42	49.70±23.87	50.93±23.45	52.16±25.09	48.03±21.77	47.48±22.12
	After treatment; (mean ± SD, pg/mL)	35.68±17.66^∗∗	42.84±20.49	39.93±16.99^∗	43.83±20.59	34.39±18.67^∗	42.29±20.97
	𝑃 value	0.003	0.110	0.037	0.151	0.038	0.434
IL-23	Before treatment; (mean ± SD, pg/mL)	27.02±11.45	25.87±12.04	27.53±12.55	28.77±13.31	26.49±10.46	22.19±8.94
	After treatment; (mean ± SD, pg/mL)	19.09±8.87^∗∗	21.14±10.42^∗	20.32±10.42	24.24±11.78	17.79±6.93^∗∗	17.24±6.13
	𝑃 value	0.001	0.03	0.051	0.158	0.001	0.063

SD: standard deviation, ^∗𝑃<0.05 compared with values before treatment, ^∗∗𝑃<0.01 compared with values before treatment (lower 𝑃 values indicated greater improvement in the expression of inflammatory mediators).