[Immuno-modulatory effect of somatostatin combined with traditional Chinese medicine on severe acute pancreatitis at early stage: a randomized control trial]

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Somatostatin in this randomized controlled trial publication.

To evaluate the immuno-modulatory effect of short course administration of somatostatin (stilamin) continuously at early stage in patients with severe acute pancreatitis (SAP).

Who Took Part

The study group was 22 men.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

Another group of 30 healthy volunteers (19 men, 11 women; the middle age was 47 years) were recruited for testing the normal levels of CD(3), CD(4) and CD(8).

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized.

The men were allocated by chance, so the Somatostatin group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Laboratory parameters, including the expressions of CD(3), CD(4) and CD(8) in lymphocytes (tested by flow cytometry) and C reactive protein (CRP), and indexes of therapeutic effect, including the occurrence of organic dysfunction, local complication and mortality between the two groups were compared.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include CD3 Complex, CD4 Antigens, CD4-CD8 Ratio, Diagnosis, Differential, Drugs, Chinese Herbal, Medicine, Chinese Traditional and Pancreatitis, Acute Necrotizing.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Somatostatin in 22 men.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 6 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2005 (Zhong xi yi jie he xue bao = Journal of Chinese integrative medicine), a journal based in China.

More context: the Somatostatin compound page, all human trials.