A meta-analysis reveals the efficacy of Chinese herbal injections in treating chronic heart failure

Researchers from Beijing University of Chinese Medicine have established the efficacy of Chinese herbal injections as an adjuvant therapy for chronic heart failure. The finding, which the team derived from a systematic review of scientific literature, was published in BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

• In the review, researchers used a network meta-analysis to investigate the effects of herbal injections, using Western treatments for chronic heart failure as a benchmark. Herbal injections that were studied included Shengmai, Shenmai, Shenqi Fuzheng, and Yiqifumai.
• The scope of the review covered Embase, the Cochrane Library, Pubmed, the Chinese Biological Medicine Database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang Database, and the Chinese Scientific Journal Database from their date of inception to July 12, 2017. For the study to be included in the review, it must fulfill criteria set forth by researchers.
• From the databases, the team accepted 113 randomized controlled trials in the review. Clinical data pertaining to effective clinical rate, left ventricular ejection fraction, cardiac output, and other outcomes were measured using different types of software.
• In addition, the study’s risk of bias was measured using tools for Cochrane Collaboration. From the outcome of each individual data, both Shengmai and Shenmai injections tied with Western treatments in most outcomes, which indicated their potential to be used in treatment.

The team concluded that either Shengmai or Shenmai injection could be a perforable treatment for chronic heart failure.

Find the full text of the study at this link.

Learn more about other ways that Chinese medicine improves heart health by following ChineseMedicine.news.

Journal Reference:

Wang KH, Wu JR, Zhang D, Duan XJ, Ni MW. COMPARATIVE EFFICACY OF CHINESE HERBAL INJECTIONS FOR TREATING CHRONIC HEART FAILURE: A NETWORK META-ANALYSIS. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine. 31 January 2018;18(41). DOI: 10.1186/s12906-018-2090-3