Qishen Taohong Granule (芪参桃红颗粒) as Adjuvant Therapy for Improving Cardiac Function and Quality of Life in Patients with Chronic Heart Failure: A Randomized Controlled Trial

OBJECTIVE To confirm the improvement of cardiac function and quality of life (QOL) in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) via Chinese medicine (CM) Qishen Taohong Granule (, QTG). METHODS This study was a single-center, prospective, randomized, controlled clinical trial. Seventy-six patients from 27 to 84 years old diagnosed with CHF New York Heart Association (NYHA) class II or III in stage C were enrolled and randomly assigned at a 1:1 ratio to receive QTG or trimetazidine (TMZ), in addition to their standard medications for the treatment of CHF. The study period was 4 weeks. The primary outcomes included cardiac function evaluated by NYHA classification and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), as well as QOL evaluated by CHF Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine Survival Scale (CHFQLS). The secondary outcomes included 6-min walking test (6MWT), CM syndrome score, symptom and sign scores and N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP). All indices were measured at baseline and the end of the trial. RESULTS At the 4-week follow-up period, the effective rate according to NYHA classification in the QTG group was better than that in the TMZ group (74.29% vs. 54.29%, P 0.05). The CHFQLS scores improved by 13.82±6.04 vs. 7.49±2.28 in the QTG and TMZ groups, respectively (P