Erythematous lupus is not unusual and is often found among women. Traditionally, people believed that there is no way to cure cazenaves lupus and it would easily cause disturbance of the functioning of the liver and kidney system and would eventually lead to death. People who were diagnosed as having cazenaves lupus are therefore very worried and seemed like having been sentenced to death.
In traditional Chinese medical science, it is believed that “red butterfly sore” (namely cazenaves lupus in western medical science) is caused mainly by the deficiency of the inborn congenital energy and the impairment of the liver and kidney. It is because the liver is responsible for the storage of blood while the kidney is responsible for the storage of the vital energy (“qi”). When both the vital energy and blood are insufficient in supply, it would easily cause the hyperactivity of fire in the body due to the deficiency of yin and the up-float of yang. In addition, because of incompact muscular striae, pathogenic factors would attack the body through our skin. Once the heat evil entered the interior, our venation would be blocked and cause damages to viscera interiorly and forms external blockages in the skin. This article focused on the treatment of cazenaves lupus using traditional Chinese medicine and that such treatment should start with the liver organ.
<Figure 1 and 2 are the comparisons about skin erythema, tongue and lip-mucosa pathological changes before and after treatment of Case 2>
Acute symptoms
In fact, erythema-like skin injury is usually the clinical symptoms of lupous hepatitis. Lupous hepatitis is one type of chronic active hepatitis. It is probably related to the body immunity system and it would usually occur in young female. During the acute period, the common symptoms are icterus, fever, inflammation of the liver and spleen, skin rash, spider angioma, arthritis and ascites. In some cases, it may be supervened with nephritis, colitis, myocarditis and stomatitis. Blood tests may find lupus cells in some patients and that their liver function test usually shows liver function disturbance, for example, serum gammaglobulin, glutamic-pyruvic aminotransferase (GPT), alkaline phosphatase (AKP) and bilirubin increases apparently.
Chronic symptoms
Besides the acute symptoms, patients with chronically hepatitis usually show symptoms like listlessness, fullness of the abdomen, diarrhea, skin pruritus, skin rash (mainly erythema), dysmenorrhea, menses disturbance, amenorrhea. Sometimes symptoms like hyper-adrenocorticism may appear, such as physical sign of obstinate acne, purple striae, hepatic edema, secondary obesity and moon-face. It is also easily supervened with immunity diseases of other systems (such as ulcerative colitis, polyarthritis, glomerulonephritis, and so on). In fact, these symptoms are often found in the clinical manifestation of different types of viral hepatitis.
The following cases are patients having negative result in testing hepatitis virus. However, it cannot exclude the possibility of virus infection even if it showed a negative result. As we applied a systematic traditional Chinese medicine treatment in terms of viral hepatitis, the result is always quite effective. Patients who are diagnosed as cazenaves lupus should have the possible attitude that by using a systematic traditional Chinese medical treatment, it can be clinically cured. The following two cases are related to cazenaves lupus.
<Figure 3 and 4 below are the comparisons about the pathological changes of the tongue before and after treatment of Case 2.>
| Case 1
Zhao X (computer number 2123), female, 51 years old. First visit was made in April 2000. Her chief complaints were: She suffered ailment from childhood, born two boys and one girl, got induced abortion twice and natural abortion four times. She has had amenorrhea since last year, often in perturbation. She had her menstruation once this year soon after taking traditional Chinese medicine. She got chest pain, short breath, and “foreign body sensation in throat” five years ago and had undergone physical examination. Lupus erythematosus cells were found in blood test and computer scanning showed phlyctena at left kidney. She has not received western medical treatment so far. She got stomach and intestine sensitiveness and fever easily and had chronic astriction, erosion and desquamation of the lips, overmuch skin chromatosis at neck, face and forearm, and senile plaque. She still had agitation, bad sleep, dreaminess, listlessness, eye dryness, and chest pain.
Physical examination showed that rhagas and desquamation were found at lips, adnexal thickening and tenderness of sternal rib joint, fixed tenderness points at the connection of breastbone to costal margin of 6th to10th ribs (left) and 9th to 10th ribs (right). Abdomen was soft and swollen, hepatic region got percussion tenderness, and liver located 1.5cm down prime rib. Edema of lower extremities, finger indentation (+), lower extremities vena emergent, capillary vessel dilatation was at limited region beside left knee.
In the return visit after 4 copies of traditional Chinese medicine, liver deflated to be normal level. She herself thought to have gotten dull pain at abdomen, headache, cough, dark urine, and dryness heat after taking the Chinese medicine. Desquamation at lips, adnexal thickening and tenderness of sternal rib joint. After using the Chinese medicine one week, headache and dark urine disappeared. To go on taking the Chinese medicine, stomachache, paralysis at the limbs and trunk, overmuch phlegm, bad sleep, dreaminess and hypopiesia (80/50 mmHg) occurred reiteratively. But they all disappeared while the patient went on taking the Chinese medicine.
Observing with suspension of the drug after usage of 42 copies of the medicine, sneeze occurred during the suspension. Gentle fixed tenderness was still at breast joint of 9th left rib. Slight desquamation at lips, little phlegm, white face, no edema at lower limbs, no other abnormity. It was cured clinically. To observe with quit of the medicine.
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| Case 2
Liang X (computer 2261), female, 42 years old. First visit at October 2000. She herself said that she had been sickly since childhood, with repeating skin pruritus and skin rash in the past years. Last November, she got erythema itch around the right eye socket, on the back and extremities. Biopsy at health center proved it to be cazenaves lupus. Blood and urine test showed no abnormity. There was no effect after repeating treatment of Chinese and western medicine and special treatment. Patient appeared listlessness, drowsiness, eye cloudiness (vitreous opacity at left eye), disturbance of menses, and vermeil abundant menses with little sludge. And she had chronic migrant skin rash and drastically skin pruritus.
Physical examination: Measles pimple could be found at the skin of top right internal canthus. At left back, palm-large ecchymosis and scratch mark appeared. Beat of pulse was 80 times per minute. Costal regions were malformed. Hepatic region got percussion tenderness and liver located 1.5 cm down prime rib. After taking 3 copies of the Chinese medicine, bilious headache broke out acutely, patient got aversion to wind and cold, pulse was 72 times per minute. Erythema was apparent on the face, and erythematous edema occurred at skin of right internal canthus, but liver located normally 1.5 cm top of prime rib.
When patient went on taking the Chinese medicine three copies, headache got relief. She herself thought to be skin pruritus. Patient got watery diarrhea, and the quantity was large. Another usage of three copies of the Chinese medicine stopped headache, alleviated skin pruritus. Accounting in her own words, she needed no western antipruritic or daub drug for exterior use. Erythema at right internal canthus retreated, and presented as brown pigmentation spot. Erythema at top right eyelid subsidized, attenuated and reduced apparently. After 9 copies of the Chinese medicine in all, physical examination showed that hepatic dullness area was still normal, and edema on the lower limbs disappeared.
When it was two weeks after beginning to take the Chinese medicine, erythema on the right eyelid subsidized apparently, and teeth prints in the tongue abated. Going on to take treatment with the Chinese medicine everyday till one month, patient seldom felt skin pruritus at down right eyelid, could go back to work, seldom felt headache, and got no hypersensitivity when contacting with abluent. Additionally, menses was vermeil and in normal quantity, with slight sludge.
Patient totally took 87 copies of the Chinese medicine, and that caused no discomfort, no skin rash, some listlessness, while stomach inhalement was ok. After clinic cure, we stopped Chinese medical treatment and switched to observation. |
Figure 5 and 6 below are the comparisons about the lip-mucosa pathological changes before and after treatment of Case 2>
Dated : 15th March 2001