Effects of Remote Ischemic Preconditioning Combined with Radix salviae Decoction on Coronary Stenosis and Prognosis: A Prospective Pilot Study

Abstract

Background and objectives Coronary stenosis is responsible for angina attacks in coronary heart disease (CHD). A prospective pilot study was conducted to investigate the effects of combining remote ischemic preconditioning (RIPC) with Radix salviae decoction (RSD).

Methods A total of 60 patients diagnosed with CHD were enrolled and divided into the control group and the RIPC-RSD treatment group. The primary outcome was the frequency of angina attacks, while the secondary outcomes included Canadian Cardiovascular Society levels, emergency medications, and prognosis indicators.

Results A total of 57 patients were included in the final analysis. Demographic characteristics and vessel stenosis comparisons showed similar results (p > 0.05). There was no significant difference in the frequency of angina attacks before (χ² = 2.170, p = 0.404) or after (χ² = 1.509, p = 0.662) treatment. Similarly, there was no significant difference in CCS levels of angina attacks between the two groups before (χ² = 1.504, p = 0.681) or after (χ² = 1.392, p = 0.707) treatment. Although there was no significant difference in the use of emergency medications for angina attacks before (χ² = 1.321, p = 0.517) or after (χ² = 2.457, p = 0.356) treatment, a significant decrease in the frequency of emergency medications was observed (Z = −2.188, p = 0.029). However, the RIPC-RSD treatment did not have a significant impact on the prognosis (cardiac death, χ² = 1.831, p = 0.176; target vessel revascularization, χ² = 1.111, p = 0.292; rehospitalization, χ² = 0.495, p = 0.482) of coronary stenosis in CHD patients.

Conclusions Due to the limitations of a relatively small sample size, this prospective pilot study did not observe a significant effect of RIPC-RSD on angina attacks and prognosis in CHD patients, but it implied potential efficacy in reducing the frequency of emergency medications.

Keywords

Coronary heart disease / Remote ischemic preconditioning / Radix salviae decoction / Stenosis / Prognosis

Acknowledgments

There is nothing to declare.

Funding

This study was supported by Zhuhai Medical Science and Technology Research Fund Project (No. ZH24013310210002PWC, to QL), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82274279, to QL), Special Funding for Chinese Medicine Science and Technology Research of Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine (No. YN2020QN10, to QL) and Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Chinese medicine Fund Project (No. 20221360, to QL).

Conflict of interest

The authors declared that there is no conflict of interests in the authorship and publication of this contribution.

Author contributions

Designed the study and finalized the manuscript (QL), collected patient information and constructed the dataset (QQL, AMZ, KLW), wrote the first version of the manuscript (GCP, RYY, QL), and finalized the manuscript revisions (QL). All authors read, re-vised, and approved the final manuscript.

Ethical statement

This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, with the ap-proval registration number of BF2021-242. The collection of all samples was conducted in strict accordance with the principles outlined in the Helsinki Declaration and with the informed consent of all participants.

Data sharing statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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