Objective To observe the clinical effect of bee-sting(venom) therapy in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis(RA).Methods One hundred RA patients were randomly divided into medication(control) group and bee-venom group

with 50 cases in each.Patients of control group were treated with oral administration of Methotrexate(MTX

7.5 mg/w)

Sulfasalazine(0.5 g

t.i.d.)

Meloxicam(Mobic

7.5 mg

b.i.d.);and those of bee-venom group treated with Bee-sting of Ashi-points and the above-mentioned Western medicines.Ashi-points were selected according to the position of RA and used as the main acupoints

supplemented with other acupoints according to syndrome differentiation.The treatment was given once every other day and all the treatments lasted for 3 months.Results Compared with pre-treatment

scores of joint swelling degree

joint activity

pain

and pressing pain

joint-swelling number

grasp force

15 m-walking duration

morning stiff duration in bee-venom group and medication group were improved significantly(P<0.05

0.01).Comparison between two groups showed that after the therapy

scores of joint swelling

pain and pressing pain

joint-swelling number and morning stiff duration

and the doses of the administered MTX and Mobic in bee-venom group were all significantly lower than those in medication group(P<0.05

0.01);whereas the grasp force in been-venom group was markedly higher than that in medication group(P<0.05).In addition

the relapse rate of bee-venom group was obviously lower than that of medication group(P<0.05;12% vs 32%).Conclusion Combined application of bee-venom therapy and medication is superior to simple use of medication in relieving RA

and when bee-sting therapy used

the commonly-taken doses of western medicines may be reduced

and the relapse rate gets lower.