Clinical efficacy evaluation is based on the four diagnostic methods of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for syndrome differentiation, followed by the assessment of treatment outcomes using the Nimodipine method. This is a commonly used efficacy evaluation system [46]. In this study, the effective rate in the control group was 60.70%, while the total effective rate in the experimental group was 85.7%, indicating that the clinical efficacy of the experimental group was significantly higher than that of the control group. After treatment with Bu Xu Ping Chuan膏 (Tonic and Asthma-Relieving Plaster), the symptom scores of both groups were significantly reduced compared to before treatment, and the improvement in symptom scores in the experimental group was better than that in the control group. This further confirms that in the intervention for the deficiency syndrome during the stable phase of COPD, while conventional Western medicine alone can improve symptoms to some extent, the thoroughness and duration of symptom relief are still insufficient. Combining Bu Xu Ping Chuan膏 treatment can more effectively improve patients' clinical symptoms and enhance overall treatment effectiveness.
Previous studies have shown that combining spleen-strengthening, lung-tonifying, and kidney-benefiting traditional Chinese herbs with conventional treatment can more effectively improve clinical symptoms in patients with stable COPD and enhance overall efficacy [1]. Current TCM clinical research also confirms that adopting a lung-intestine regulation treatment approach for patients with stable COPD results in significantly better syndrome improvement compared to single methods of lung tonification or asthma relief [2]. This is consistent with the findings of this study, further validating the core guiding role of the "lungs and large intestine are interrelated" theory in the TCM differential diagnosis and treatment of COPD, as well as the scientific and clinically targeted formulation of Bu Xu Ping Chuan膏.