ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Thyroid Endocrinology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2025.1560262
Effectiveness of Xiakucao Oral Liquid Combined with Methimazole on Early Thyroid Function Recovery and Treatment Compliance in Graves' Disease: A Real-World Retrospective Cohort Study
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Neurology, Jieyang People's Hospital, Jieyang, China
- 2Shanghai Haitian Pharmaceutical Technology Development Co., Ltd, Shanghai, China
- 3School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China
- 4Department of Endocrinology, Jieyang People's Hospital, Jieyang, China
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Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness and treatment compliance of Xiakucao Oral Liquid (XKC) combined with methimazole (MMI) on the early recovery of thyroid function in Graves' disease (GD) patients. Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, GD patients receiving initial treatment at Jieyang People's Hospital from January 2019 to December 2023 were included and divided into XKC+MMI group and MMI group based on the treatment regimen. The association between XKC+MMI and early thyroid function recovery was analyzed using multiple linear regression in the subgroup of patients with post-treatment data available at 3 months. Results: A total of 441 patients were enrolled, among whom 113 (25.6%) patients received XKC+MMI. The proportion of patients receiving XKC+MMI was significantly higher with an initial MMI dose ≥20 mg/day than <20 mg/day (37.1% vs. 15.2%, P=0.006). In XKC+MMI group, 15 (13.3%) patients underwent continuous treatment with XKC for three months. Subgroup analysis (n=121) showed the increase of sensitive thyroid-stimulating hormone (sTSH) in XKC+MMI group was higher than that in MMI group (4.86±11.7 vs 1.15±5.16). Multivariate linear regression analysis indicated that compared with MMI alone, XKC+MMI was independently associated with the increase of sTSH (β=3.346, 95%CI: 0.353-6.339, P=0.031), and the continuous 3-month treatment of XKC+MMI was also independently associated with the increase of sTSH at 3 months (β=4.062, 95%CI: 0.516-7.608, P=0.027). Conclusions: XKC combination MMI treatment might promote early recovery of thyroid function. However, adherence to and persistence with XKC treatment still need to be improved.
Keywords: Graves' disease, Xiakucao Oral Liquid, Methimazole, sensitive thyroid-stimulating hormone, Real-world
Received: 14 Jan 2025; Accepted: 15 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lin, Zhang, Zhang, Zhu, Li and Yuan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Bichai Yuan, Department of Endocrinology, Jieyang People's Hospital, Jieyang, China
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