Objective  To explore the clinical effect of Compound Danshen Dripping Pills, Mingmu Dihuang Pills and calcium dobesilate capsules in the treatment of patients with diabetic retinopathy (DR) at stage Ⅲ.

  Methods  Totally 76 patients (76 eyes) with DR at stage Ⅲ were randomly divided into two groups. In the control group, 35 patients were treated with calcium dobesilate capsules on the basis of routine treatment. In the study group, 41 patients were treated with Danshen Dripping Pills and Mingmu Dihuang Pills on the basis of control group. The therapeutic effect, bleeding spot area, visual gray value, hemangioma volume and macular thickness before and after treatment were compared between the two groups. The expression levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), retinol binding protein 4 (RBP4) and insulin growth factor-1 (IGF-1) were compared between the two groups before and after treatment.

  Results  The clinical effect of the study group was significantly better than that of the control group (P < 0.05). After treatment, the hemorrhagic plaque area, hemangioma volume and macular thickness in the study group were significantly smaller than those in the control group, and the visual gray value and logMAR visual acuity were significantly lower than those in the control group (P < 0.05). After 1, 2 and 3 months of treatment, the serum levels of VEGF, RBP4 and IGF-1 in both groups showed a significant downward trend (P < 0.05), and the above indexes in the study group were significantly lower than those in the control group (P < 0.05).

  Conclusion  Combination of compound Danshen dropping pills, Mingmu Dihuang pills and calcium dobesilate are effective in the treatment of patients with DR at stage Ⅲ, which can effectively inhibit the angiogenesis mediated by various cytokines in retina, improve fundus symptoms and visual acuity of patients.