Management of Chronic Kidney Disease Guided by the Theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine: an Experimental Study

Objective?To determine the impact of Traditional Chinese Medicine on patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Methods?A total of 225 CKD patients in an outpatient department were recruited for this study, among whom 170 received regular Western and Chinese medicine treatments (control group) and 55 received treatments guided by the theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine (experimental group). The effectiveness of the treatments was determined through a pre-post comparison. Results?Significant pre-intervention differences in age (P<0.01), stage of glomerular filtration rate (GFR) (P=0.007) and urine protein (P<0.01) were found between the two groups of patients. But age, gender and proteinuria were not significant predictors on clinical outcomes of the patients in the multivariate regression models. The experimental group had a greater level of decrease in blood urea nitrogen (P<0.01) and serum creatine (P<0.01) than the control group. No significant differences between the groups were found in changes of uric acid (P=0.475), urine protein (P=0.058), urine red cells (P=0.577), and urine white cells (P=0.01). A greater level of increase in estimated glomerular filtration rate was found in the experimental group compared with the control (P<0.001). The multivariate linear regression analysis identified group (B=0.395, P<0.001）and stage of GFR （B=0.165, P=0.008） as significant predictors on the outcomes of treatment. Conclusion?The treatment of CKD patients guided by the theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine can improve renal function through influencing glomerular filtration rate. The effect is more prominent than the regular treatment regime.