Chinese medicine may benefit heart failure

Good results have been seen for the traditional Chinese medicine qiliqiangxin after a diagnosis of heart failure, a European heart conference has heard.

It was tested in a randomised trial by Professor Xinli Li at the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, China, and colleagues.

This medicine is an extract of 11 types of herbs including ginseng, safflower and dried tangerine peel.

Taking part in the QUEST trial were 3,110 men and women with major heart failure, recruited at 133 hospitals in mainland China and Hong Kong. All had a left ventricular ejection fraction of 40% or below and were stable on a standardised treatment for at least two weeks.

They received four capsules of qiliqiangxin three times a day, or placebo, in addition to standard chronic heart failure medication.

Over a follow up of around 18 months, 25% of patients on qiliqiangxin and 30% on placebo were rehospitalised for worsening heart failure or died due to cardiovascular reasons.

This represented a 22% lower risk on qiliqiangxin, which held strong across subgroups of age and other risk factors.

Those on qiliqiangxin had a greater decrease in serum NT-proBNP, a heart failure biomarker, over three months. But all-cause mortality was similar in both groups.

Side effects were also similar between the groups, with those on qiliqiangxin capsules experiencing no more gastrointestinal symptoms than those on placebo.

Findings were presented at the European Society of Cardiology conference held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

“To our knowledge, this was the first randomised, double-blind controlled trial of a traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of chronic heart failure,” said Professor Li.

“Our findings demonstrate meaningful clinical benefit with qiliqiangxin, which support the use of qiliqiangxin as an adjunct therapy for treating heart failure.”

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