Effect of Shenmai Injection on Cardiac Function in Gerontal Patients With Chronic Heart Failure

Objectives To investigate the effect of Shenmai injection on the therapeutic effect and cardiac function and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) in gerontal patient with chronic heart failure. Methods 64 patients age more than 65 years with chronic heart failure were randomly divided into two groups: the treatment group (n=34) and control group (n=30). Patients in the control group were given routine therapy including oxygen inhaling, cardiotonic, diuresis, blood vessels extension, correcting the fluid and electrolyte imbalance, and the patients in the treatment group were given Shenmai injection 100 ml every day underlying the routine therapy. The course of treatment was 4 weeks. Observe the NYHA class, left ventricular end diastolic diameters (LVEDD), left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), cardiac output (CO), stroke volume (SV) and serum BNP of the patients before and after treatment. Results Every index of cardiac function and BNP of patients in two groups were significantly improved (p<0.05). The total effective ratios of the improvement about NYHA class in patients in treatment group (77.2%) is significantly higher than those in control group (65.3%) (p<0.05). And the LVEF (0.61±0.18), SV (60.30±16.15) ml and serum BNP (300±25.6) ng/l of patients in treatment group after therapy were significantly different to the patients in control group (p<0.05), but there were no difference of the LVEDD and CO of patients between two groups (p>0.05). Conclusions Shenmai injection association with routine treatment can improve the therapeutic effect and cardiac funtion of the gerontal patients with chronic heart failure.