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Background: Chinese herbal medicine is widely used as a complement or alternative treatment in coronary artery disease (CAD) patients after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in China. We compared the incidence of the major adverse cardiovascular event (MACE) of CAD patients with or without the complement use of Chinese herbal medicine after PCI., Methods: In this prospective, observational study that was conducted from September 2016 to August 2019 in Fuwai Hospital (China), we followed up consecutive patients who received PCI treatment for two years. MACE was defined as the composite all-cause mortality, revascularization, and myocardial infarction (MI) and was compared between those using (integrative medicine group) or those not using Chinese herbal medicine as an additional treatment to standard Western medicine, with unadjusted (Kaplan-Meier curves) and risk-adjusted (multivariable Cox regression) analyses., Results: A total of 5942 patients after PCI were enrolled in this study, and 5453 patients were included in the final analysis (4189 [76.8%] male; mean age: 61.9 ± 9.9% years). During the follow-ups, 2932 (53.8%) patients used only Western medicine while 2521(46.2%) patients had used Chinese herbal medicine as an additional treatment to standard Western medicine. Patients in the integrative medicine group (IM group) were older than the Western medicine group (WM group), had more females and less previous MI. The incidence of MACE was 15.3% (449/2932) in WM group and 11.54% (291/2521) in IM group. Cox regression analysis showed that cumulative incidence of MACE was 27% lower in patients of the IM group than those in WM group (hazard ratio = 0.73; 95% CI: 0.63-0.85; P < 0.0001)., Conclusions: For CAD patients after PCI treatment, complement use of Chinese herbal medicine is associated with a lower 2-year MACE incidence. Randomized prospective studies are warranted to provide higher levels of benefit evidence in these patients., (© 2022 JGC All rights reserved; www.jgc301.com.)

Background: Qishen (QS) capsules, a Traditional Chinese Medicine, has been widely used to treat coronary heart disease in China. However, evidence of its effectiveness remains unclear., Methods: To explore whether QS has cardioprotective efficacy and/or promotes angiogenesis after myocardial infarction (MI), we performed experiments in a preclinical rat MI model. One month after left anterior descending coronary artery ligation, the rats received either QS solution (0.4 g/kg/day) or the same volume of saline by intragastric injection for four weeks., Results: Echocardiographic and hemodynamic analyses demonstrated relatively preserved cardiac function in MI rats administered QS. Indeed, QS treatment was associated with reduced infarct scar size and heart weight index, and these beneficial effects were responsible for enhancing angiogenesis. Mechanistically, QS treatment increased phosphorylation of protein kinase B (Akt) and downregulated phosphorylation of mitogen-activated protein kinase/extracellular-regulated kinase (MEK/ERK)., Conclusions: QS therapy can improve the cardiac function of rats after MI by an underlying mechanism involving increased angiogenesis, at least partially via activation of the Akt signaling pathway and inhibition of MEK/ERK phosphorylation., (Institute of Geriatric Cardiology.)