Objective To evaluate the clinical therapeutic effect and safety of western medicine plus Shenfu Injection versus simple western medicine in heart failure (HF) patients.
Methods Such databases as CNKI (January 1979 to 2009), VIP (January 1989 to December 2009), CBM (1978 to 2009), PubMed (1978 to December 2009), The Cochrane Library (Issue 4, 2009) and relevant journals were searched, and the literature of randomized controlled trials comparing the combination of western medicine and Shenfu Injection with simple western medicine in HF patients was included. The quality of studies was evaluated according to the methods of the Cochrane Collaboration, the data were extracted; and meta-analyses were performed with RevMan5.0.2 software.
Results Sixteen trials involving 1 117 patients were included. The results of meta-analyses showed that compared with the simple western medicine treatment, the combination of western medicine and Shenfu Injection therapy significantly improved the symptoms, clinical comprehensive effect (RR=3.30, 95%CI 2.22 to 4.92, P lt;0.000 01), TCM syndrome and patient’s quality of life (RR=6.85, 95%CI 2.90 to 16.17, P lt;0.000 01), increased left ventricular ejection fraction (WMD=3.54, 95%CI 2.78 to 4.30, P lt;0.000 01), and reduced LVSD (WMD=2.43, 95%CI 1.04 to 3.82, P=0.000 6). Meanwhile, only one trail indicated that the combination of western medicine and Shenfu Injection might increase the six-minute walking distance, reduce the level of IL-6 and TNF-α, and eliminate the Lee’s HF and LVD-36 questionnaire integral.
Conclusion The therapeutic effect of combining western medicine with Shenfu Injection therapy on HF patients is better than that of simple western medicine treatment.
Citation： HOU Yazhu,MAO Jingyuan,WANG Xianliang,LI Jia,LIU Chunxiang. Shenfu Injection for Patients with Heart Failure: A Systematic Review. Chinese Journal of Evidence-Based Medicine, 2011, 11(3): 292-299. doi: 10.7507/1672-2531.20110049 Copy