Tonifying Qi and activating blood circulation in terms of Traditional Chinese Medicine: their effects in patients with myocardial infarction

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the effects of tonifying Qi and activating blood circulation (SQABC), a method in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), on end-point events in patients with myocardial infarction (MI) in this retrospective cohort study.

METHODS

Clinical data were obtained from the medical records of patients with acute MI (AMI), both during hospitalization and follow-up, and included general demographic information (age, gender, and contact information), TCM regimens used, and end-point events.

RESULTS

A total of 1596 patients with AMI were enrolled to this study, but data of only 1210 cases are accessible till follow-up. We classified the patients based on the exposure levels of SQABC. When comparing the results between all exposure and non-exposure groups, significant differences were identified, both during hospitalization and follow-ups. During hospitalization, cardiac death (4.40% vs 21.55%, P < 0.05) and cardiac shock (3.04% vs 11.62%, P < 0.05) were significantly lower in the exposure group than the non-exposure group. Similarly, during the follow-up, cardiac death (12.04% vs 20.49%, P < 0.05), acute heart failure (7.27% vs 11.81%, P < 0.05), composite endpoint of reinfarction and stroke (9.11% vs 15.28%, P < 0.05), and rehospitalization due to angina (25.49% vs 34.38%, P < 0.05) were significantly lower in the exposure group than the non-exposure group.

CONCLUSION

Our findings suggest that SQABC can significantly benefits the subjects in the management of high-risk AMI in them.