[Feigan granules improve traditional Chinese medicine symptoms scale scores for influenza patients: a prospective clinical observational study].

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate the clinical efficacy of hospital-prepared Chinese medicine Feigan granules for influenza patients. This study has been registered at the International Traditional Medicine Clinical Trial Registry platform (ITMCTR2025000162).

Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted on influenza patients who visited the Fever Clinic of the First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine between February and March 2024. Patients were divided into the observation group (Feigan granules combined with conventional Western medicine) and the control group (conventional Western medicine). Main symptoms (including fever, cough and sore throat) and secondary symptoms (including chest tightness, poor appetite, muscle soreness and dry mouth) were evaluated with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) symptom scale on the first day of the patient's visit and the third day after treatment. The degrees of improvement in the TCM symptom scores before and after treatment were compared using paired rank-sum test, and the differences in the overall symptom efficacy index between two groups were compared using the Wilcoxon test.

Results: A total of 217 influenza patients were included. After treatment, the TCM symptom scores of both groups were significantly improved compared with those before treatment (all P<0.01). The median differences in the main symptom score before and after treatment in the observation and the control groups were 7 points (95%CI: 6.0-8.0) and 6 points (95%CI: 6.0-8.0), respectively. The median difference in the secondary symptom score was 3 points (95%CI: 2.0-4.0) in both groups. The median differences in the total score were 9 points (95%CI: 8.0-10.5) and 8 points (95%CI: 7.0-10.0) in the observation and control groups, respectively. In the subgroup with an initial cough score >2, the improvement rates of total score (97.06% vs. 92.59%) and secondary symptoms (92.31% vs. 85.11%) in observation group were significantly higher than those in the control group (P<0.05); while there was no significant difference in the improvement rate of the main symptoms (95.59% vs. 90.74%, P>0.05).

Conclusions: Feigan granules can improve the TCM syndromes of influenza patients, especially for patients with more severe cough.