Traditional Chinese medicine for ischemic heart disease: clinical manifestations and objective indicators

Abstract Background: The clinical practice of Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has a history of more than 2000 years. Modern clinical trials and experimental researches of TCM have been conducted for decades and provided support for the application of TCM in the prevention and treatment of ischemic heart disease (IHD). However the level of evidence and the proper application of TCM were still barely satisfactory. Methods: In this study, we divided IHD into 5 different stages, including stable angina, unstable angina, acute myocardial infarction, post myocardial infarction and chronic heart failure. Then we systematically reviewed and meta-analyzed the existing RCTs on both clinical manifestations and objective indicators, in these 5 aspects. Results: The results indicate that TCM can both improve the clinical manifestations and ameliorate the objective parameters in different courses of IHD. Some of the improvements lead to potential long-term benefits. Conclusions: TCM is effective on CVD in different stages of diseases, both in improving clinical manifestations and objective indicators. To acquire more solid and comprehensive evidence of TCM in treating CVD, more rigorously designed RCTs with longer follow-up duration are warranted.