Key result
Oral Chinese Herbal Medicine combined with conventional medicine treatment improved therapeutic effects in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy, though evidence remains weak.
Why the study?
Does Oral Chinese Herbal Medicine combined with conventional medicine treatment improve outcomes in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy?
Meta-Analysis
Does Oral Chinese Herbal Medicine combined with conventional medicine treatment improve outcomes in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy?
Oral Chinese Herbal Medicine combined with conventional therapy may improve therapeutic effects in dilated cardiomyopathy, but current evidence is weak and requires larger, well-designed trials.
May support adjunctive oral Chinese herbal medicine in dilated cardiomyopathy; leaves open confirmation by larger, rigorous RCTs.
Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is one of the main causes of heart failure and could increase death, hospitalization, and rehospitalization rate. The effect of conventional medicine treatment (CMT) is limited; meanwhile, the combination of CMT and Oral Chinese Herbal Medicine (OCHM) represents exciting adjunctive therapies. In this study, we ascertained the therapeutic effect of OCHM in combination with CMT for dilated cardiomyopathy by using meta-analysis methods for controlled clinical trials. We searched studies from five databases and extracted data from these studies. We also assessed the methodological quality of the included studies. We evaluated the following outcome measures to estimate the prognosis in patients with DCM: left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), left ventricular end-diastolic dimension (LVEDD), stroke volume (SV), brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), 6-minute walk test (6MWT), and overall efficacy. The result showed that OCHM combined with CMT for the improvement of therapeutic effect in DCM patients. However, the evidence remains weak due to the small sample size, high clinical heterogeneity, and poor methodological quality of the included trials. Further, large sample size and well-designed trials are needed.
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Zhu et al. (2016) conducted a meta-analysis in Dilated cardiomyopathy. Oral Chinese Herbal Medicine (OCHM) combined with conventional medicine treatment (CMT) vs. Conventional medicine treatment (CMT) was evaluated on Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), left ventricular end-diastolic dimension (LVEDD), stroke volume (SV), brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), 6-minute walk test (6MWT), and overall efficacy. Oral Chinese Herbal Medicine combined with conventional medicine treatment improved therapeutic effects in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy, though evidence remains weak.
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