Effects of glucocorticoids combined with probiotics in treating Crohn's disease on inflammatory factors and intestinal microflora

This study investigated the effect of glucocorticoids combined with probiotics on inflammatory factors and intestinal microflora in the treatment of Crohn's disease. Eighty-three patients with Crohn's disease were selected from March 2015 to December 2017 in PLA Army General Hospital (Beijing, China). A total of 83 patients were randomly divided into the control group and treatment group. Patients in the control group were treated with routine treatment of oral sulfasalazine. Besides oral sulfasalazine, patients in the treatment group were treated with probiotics combined with glucocorticoids. At the same time, a total of 40 healthy individuals were selected to serve as the healthy group (received no treatment). Clinical efficacy, changes of inflammatory factors, incidence of infection and changes of intestinal flora were compared between the different groups. After treatment, the levels of inflammatory factors in both groups significantly decreased, and the reduction in the treatment group significantly increased than that in the control group (P<0.05). The levels of inflammatory cytokines in the treatment group reached the levels of that in the healthy individuals after treatment. After treatment, the levels of yeast, enterococci and peptococcus of the two groups of patients were significantly decreased, while the level of lactobacillus was significantly increased, and the changes were more significant in the treatment group than those in the control group. After treatment, the number of intestinal flora in the treatment group reached that of the healthy individuals. Treatment efficiency of the treatment group was significantly higher than that of the control group, and the infection rate of the control group was significantly higher than that of the treatment group (P<0.05). The use of probiotics combined with glucocorticoid in the treatment of Crohn's disease can improve clinical curative effect, reduce the secretion of inflammatory factors and improve the level of intestinal flora, so as to achieve better outcomes compared with conventional method.