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

Table 4

Levels of IL-8, TNF-𝛼, IL-17, and IL-23 in the blood 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)	21.93±7.56	20.67±9.35	23.30±8.29	21.25±10.48	20.55±6.65	19.78±7.51
	After treatment; (mean ± SD, pg/mL)	18.30±6.55^∗	19.79±7.87	19.74±6.78	19.57±8.00	18.41±6.70^∗	16.32±5.89
	𝑃 value	0.021	0.125	0.145	0.448	0.049	0.098
TNF-𝛼	Before treatment; (mean ± SD, pg/mL)	71.59±23.30	72.52±23.55	73.17±23.95	73.88±22.15	70.02±23.01	70.48±25.96
	After treatment; (mean ± SD, pg/mL)	66.12±21.46	67.33±24.03	69.25±23.61	66.87±23.08	62.99±19.06	68.01±25.99
	𝑃 value	0.238	0.263	0.551	0.244	0.291	0.739
IL-17	Before treatment; (mean ± SD, pg/mL)	111.62±38.09	109.17±29.07	116.53±36.44	113.53±32.64	106.71±39.79	102.63±21.89
	After treatment; (mean ± SD, pg/mL)	93.16±29.14^∗∗	101.49±30.97	97.77±26.06^∗	105.82±31.97	88.56±31.79^∗	94.99±28.97
	𝑃 value	0.004	0.232	0.041	0.354	0.047	0.450
IL-23	Before treatment; (mean ± SD, pg/mL)	68.55±25.23	68.89±28.29	72.98±23.91	68.29±30.59	64.12±26.21	69.79±25.20
	After treatment; (mean ± SD, pg/mL)	61.59±28.09	63.21±28.24	68.79±31.39	63.88±30.67	54.39±24.98	62.20±24.88
	𝑃 value	0.208	0.303	0.617	0.563	0.169	0.335

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).