Abstract: Objective  To evaluate the curative effect of Kun Xian capsule on knee osteoarthritis (KOA) by the changes  of the knee joint  cartilage  with high frequency ultrasound.Methods  A total of 43 cases of KOA patients were enrolled and randomly divided into control group (n=24) and treatment group(n=19). The control group were treated with glucosamine hydrochloride plus meloxicam, while the treatment group were treated with Kun Xian capsule on the basis of the control group. The degree of knee joint pain in all patients was assessed by visual analogue scoring（VAS）  before treatment and 3 months after treatment. In the meantime,  the cartilage of the femoral trochlear groove(TG), medial femoral condyle(MFC) and lateral femoral condyle(LFC) were detected by ultrasound to grade the degrees of cartilage injury. Results  Compared with the conditions before treatment，the VAS scores of the treatment group and the control group decreased after 3 month treatment(P<0.01), while, there was no significant change between MFC and LFC ultrasonic grade after 3month treatment in the control group. However, TG and the total score of ultrasonic grade witnessed increases(P<0.05).  In the treatment group， there was no significant change between TG，MFC，LFC and the total score of ultrasonic grade after 3month treatment. Compared with the control group， the VAS score of the treatment group decreased more obviously(P<0.01) , TG and the  total ultrasonic score  of the treatment group were significantly lower than those of the control group(P<0.05), and there was no significant difference  between MFC and LFC.Conclusion  Kun Xian capsule combined with glucosamine hydrochloride and meloxicam can relieve pain and delay disease progression in KOA. High  frequency ultrasound can be applied to evaluate the degree of articular cartilage injury as a method to evaluate the curative effect of KOA， which can be popularized in clinical application.

Key words: osteoarthritis, knee, kunxian capsule, cartilage degeneration, high frequency ultrasound