What does this research mean for the field?

Adjunctive Traditional Chinese Medicine combined with conventional Western therapy reduces in-stent restenosis and non-fatal myocardial infarction following percutaneous coronary intervention, but does not significantly alter cardiac mortality or CABG rates. Novelty: ClaimNovelty.SYNTHESIS. Consensus alignment: ConsensusAlignment.NEUTRAL.

February 18, 2026Frontiers in Cardiovascular MedicineOpen Access

The effects of Traditional Chinese Medicine on cardiac function after percutaneous coronary intervention: a meta-analysis and systematic review

View Full Paper

Ask AI

Bookmark

Why the study?

Current evidence regarding the effects of Traditional Chinese Medicine on cardiac function in patients with coronary heart disease following percutaneous coronary intervention needed synthesis and summarization.

Does Traditional Chinese Medicine combined with conventional Western medicine reduce adverse cardiovascular events in patients with coronary heart disease following percutaneous coronary intervention?

Structured PICO

Population

12 RCTs pooling 6,383 patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) confirmed by coronary angiography and treated with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Mean age ranged from 52.3 to 82.6 years, 48.1% to 70.0% male.

Intervention

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) (including herbal decoctions, injections, or proprietary formulations) combined with conventional Western medicine

Comparator

Conventional Western medicine alone

Outcome

Adverse cardiovascular events, including in-stent restenosis (ISR), non-fatal myocardial infarction, cardiogenic death, and coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG)hard clinical

Integrating Traditional Chinese Medicine with conventional Western therapy after PCI may reduce the incidence of in-stent restenosis and non-fatal myocardial infarction, though it does not significantly affect cardiac mortality.

Limitations

Small number of included studies (12 studies) preventing subgroup or sensitivity analysis
Limited available clinical indicators in the included studies (e.g., TCM syndrome scores, LVEF, NT-proBNP not reported)

Implication

May support adjunctive TCM post-PCI to reduce ISR and nonfatal MI; extends meta-analytic evidence for integrative strategies.

Abstract

Objective This systematic review aimed to synthesize and summarize current evidence regarding the effects of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) on cardiac function in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) following percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Methods A comprehensive search was conducted in PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang Database, the Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), and the Chinese Scientific and Technological Journal Database (VIP). Relevant conference papers were also manually screened. Studies evaluating the clinical efficacy of TCM combined with conventional Western medicine for CHD after PCI were selected based on predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. The methodological quality of the included studies was assessed using the RoB 2. Data extraction was performed independently, and Stata software was used for meta-analysis. Results 12 studies involving a total of 6,383 patients were included. Compared with conventional Western medicine alone, integrated TCM and Western therapy significantly reduced the incidence of in-stent restenosis (ISR) and non-fatal myocardial infarction after PCI ( p < 0.05). However, no significant differences were observed in cardiac mortality or the incidence of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) between the two treatment approaches ( p > 0.05). Conclusion The combination of TCM with conventional Western therapy may reduce ISR and non-fatal myocardial infarction in CHD patients after PCI compared with Western medicine alone, suggesting potential benefits for improving post-PCI clinical outcomes.