Prescription for reinforcing qi and activating blood in treatment of coronary heart diseases: a meta-analysis

AIM To evaluate the curative effect and safety of prescription for reinforcing qi and activating blood in treatment of coronary heart disease(CHD). METHODS Studies were identified by searching PubMed, MEDLINE, and Web of Science(SCI), CBM, CNKI and VIP databases. RevMan 5.3 software was used to extract the effective data for meta-analysis. RESULTS ①Twenty-one RCT studies were identified, including 3 306 patients. Compared with the Western medicine group(conventional Western medicine treatment), gross curative effect, electrocardiogram curative effect and angina pectoris curative effect with OR(95% CI) of the Chinese traditional medicine combined with the Westen medicine group(prescription for reinforcing qi and activating blood combined with conventional Western medicine treatment) were 3.672.77,4.87, 1.861.42,2.44 and 2.731.75,4.27, respectively, which were statistically significant. ②Using 30 days as a separation time-point, the studies of the therapeutic period of 28-30 days accounted for 50%. Subgroup analyses of courses about gross curative effect showed that the therapeutic period of 28-30 days was as effective as that of >30 days in treating CHD. ③ Adverse drug reactions/events of the 3 306 patients enrolled with CHD were observed, with two cases of abdominal discomfort in the Chinese traditional medicine group combined with the Western medicine group vs. four cases mainly characterized by dizziness, headache, flushing, etc. in the Western medicine group. CONCLUSION Combination of reinforcing qi and activating blood prescription and basal conventional Western medicine in the treatment of CHD is superior to the latter alone in terms of total clinical efficacy and curative effects in angina pectoris and electrocardiogram as well as demonstrating a superior safety profile.