To investigate the effects of Compound Glycyrrhizin Injection (CGI) on liver function and cellular immunity of children with infectious mononucleosis complicated liver impairment (IM-LI) and to explore its clinical therapeutic effect. Forty-two patients with IM-LI were randomly assigned

according to the randomizing number table

to two groups

20 in the control group and 22 in the treated group. All the patients were treated with conventional treatment

but to those in the treated group

CGI was given additionally once a day

at the dosage of 10 ml for children aged below 2 years

20 ml for 2–4 years old

30 ml for 5–7 years old and 40 ml for 8–12 years old

in 100–200 ml of 5% glucose solution by intravenous dripping. The treatment lasted for 2 weeks. T lymphocyte subsets and serum levels of alanine transaminase (ALT)

aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and total bilirubin (TBil) were detected before and after treatment. Besides

a normal control group consisting of 20 healthy children was also set up. Baseline of the percentage of CD3 +

CD8 + lymphocyte and serum levels of ALT

AST

TBiL in the children with IM-LI were markedly higher

while the percentage of CD4 + lymphocyte and the CD4 +/CD8 + ratio was markedly lower in IM-LI children as compared with the corresponding indices in the healthy children (P<0.01). These indices were improved after treatment in both groups of patients

but the improvement in the treated group was better than that in the control group (P<0.01). Cellular immunity dysfunction often occurs in patients with IM-LI

and CGI treatment can not only obviously promote the recovery of liver function

but also regulate the immune function in organism.