Late stage of adult Steele’s disease focuses on TCM regimen

Steele’s disease is a seronegative polyarthritis, a form of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. First reported by Steele (1897), its clinical features include prolonged irregular fever with enlarged liver and spleen lymph nodes, anemia leukocytosis, multiple small, medium and large arthritis, and myelopathy. The disease differs from adult rheumatoid arthritis in both clinical manifestations and pathology. Its systemic symptoms are more prominent rheumatoid factor is mostly negative, and it is associated with HLA-B27. The etiology of the disease has not been completely elucidated, most patients have a history of infection before the onset of the disease, especially streptococcal and staphylococcal infections, due to negative blood cultures, so some scholars believe that it is related to infectious metaplasia. The diagnosis of this disease is mainly based on clinical features, and since there is no specific diagnostic method for this disease, the diagnosis can be confirmed only after excluding other diseases. The disease should often be differentiated from sepsis, rheumatic fever, lymphoma, systemic lupus erythematosus, dermatomyositis, rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and other diseases. Modern medicine mainly uses steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs to treat this disease, and in recent years, cytotoxic drugs have also been applied to treat the disease, but the effect is not satisfactory. The main basis for the understanding of this disease is that the disease belongs to the category of “warm disease”, mainly based on the evidence of strong fever, restlessness when fever is present, the mouth is not very thirsty, the rash is sometimes faint, the tongue is red and vivid, the pulse is fine and other symptoms, the disease is hovering between qi and ying, or the sign of burnt qi and ying. The second is that the disease should be classified as “paralysis” or “Lijie Feng”. Combined with the fact that this disease is characterized by painful joint lesions, intermittent wandering or swelling, the disease is considered to be mainly cold, and can be classified as wind-cold pain or cold-damp paralysis pain. The pathogenesis of the disease is the internal closure of cold and dampness, invading the muscles and bones, blocking the meridians and channels, forcing the yin outside and inside, and then turning heat into yin and causing the disease. The clinical typology is not fixed, but is often in a situation of burnt Qi and Ying when heat is in full bloom, and after the heat has been reduced, there is an image of deficiency of both Qi and Yin, so in the treatment, we must take into account both the elimination of evil and the regulation of Yin and Yang. According to our observation, after the active treatment with hormones and passing the acute stage, we should pay attention to the cooperation of Chinese medicine in the treatment of adult Still’s disease. In the early stage of TCM treatment, the main focus is to clear heat and dampness, according to the therapeutic idea of warmth, but in the later stage, we must tonify the spleen and benefit the qi, and properly nourish the yin. It can make the hormone withdrawal faster and reduce the hormone side effects. In conclusion, after adult Steele’s disease has passed through the acute phase with hormone therapy, adjustments should be made according to the patient’s constitution, and combined Chinese and Western medicine treatment can achieve better results.