Dacheng Qu,
Xiaoping Huang ,
Yamei Yang
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Affiliated Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong City, China;
For correspondence:- Xiaoping Huang
Email: wuxiaoyankjdj@163.com Tel:+867122778100
Accepted: 23 January 2019
Published: 28 February 2019
Citation:
Qu D, Huang X, Yang Y.
Combined effect of dydrogesterone and letrozole on humoral immune function, sex hormone levels and serology-related indices in patients with endometriosis. Trop J Pharm Res 2019; 18(2):415-419
doi:
10.4314/tjpr.v18i2.28
© 2019 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..
Abstract
Purpose: To investigate the combined effect of dydrogesterone and letrozole on humoral immunity, and levels of sex hormones and serology-related indices in patients with endometriosis.
Methods: Patients with endometriosis (98 cases) were randomly assigned to two groups of 49 patients each: control group and study group. The control group received dydrogesterone (10 mg/kg) orally from the fifth day to the twenty-fifth day of the patient's menstrual cycle, twice daily; while the study group, in addition to dydrogesterone (10 mg/kg), received letrozole (2.5 mg/kg). Treatment in both groups lasted one month, and changes in the levels of humoral immunity, sex hormones and serology-related indices were evaluated before and after treatment. Clinical effectiveness and adverse reactions in both groups were also assessed.
Results: After treatment, total effectiveness was markedly higher in the study group (91.84 %) than in control group (77.55 %, p < 0.05). Post-treatment, humoral immunity (IgM, IgG and C3) levels were significantly higher in the study group than in control group (p < 0.05) while estradiol (E2) level in both groups were significantly reduced; however, E2 level was markedly lower in the study group than in control group (p < 0.05).
Conclusion: These results suggest that the combination of dydrogesterone with letrozole alleviates clinical symptoms of endometriosis, improves humoral immune function, and maintains sex hormone levels.
Keywords: Endometriosis, Dydrogesterone, Letrozole, Humoral immunity, Sex hormones, Serological-related indices