Objective: To observe the clinical effect of composite Caulis Tripterygium Wilfordii Film (CCTWF) in treating rheumatoid Arthritis (RA).

Methods: According to the diagnostic standard proposed by American Rheumatism Association, l987, 40 patients of RA were selected and a single-blinded random 25: l5 comparative study was conducted in l996, then, a double-blinded random 30: 30 comparative study was conducted in 60 patients in l997, the therapeutic course was 6 weeks for both the two groups. The observation criteria including degree of swelling and pain of joint, gripping strength of hands, time of morning stiff, joint function class, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), rheumatoid factor (RF) and C reaction protein, etc.

Result: Observation in the two groups showed that the improvement in the treatment group was better than that in the control group in aspects of swelling, tenderness, pain of joint gripping strength of hands, time of morning stiff and function of joint. According to both the American evaluation standard or the new drug clinical efficacy evaluation standard of Chinese drugs and the auto-evaluation standard of patients, all the results of assays displayed that the effect in the treatment group was better than that in the control group (P<0.05 and P<0.0l). ESR. RF and C reaction protein were improved obviously observation also showed that the toxic side effect of CCTWF was very small, so was safe in clinical use.
　　
Conclusion: External application of CCTWF is effective and safe in treating RA.

By Deng Zhaozhi, Chen Wei, Ou Runmei etc.