Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

A clinical study on the efficacy of modified Sangsu Guiling Decoction in the treatment of pulmonary hypertension due to left-sided heart disease

Zhenhua Gu¹, Yichen Wang², Shuhua Tang³ , Chunti Shen⁴

¹Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Changzhou Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, Changzhou 213000, China; ²Emergency Department, Chinese Medical Hospital of Wujin, Changzhou 213100, China; ³Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Jiangsu Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 210000 Nanjing, China; ⁴Department of Respiratory Medicine, Changzhou Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, Jiangsu 213000, China.

For correspondence:- Shuhua Tang Email: tangshuhua23@163.com Tel:+8618260037516

Accepted: 24 February 2024 Published: 31 March 2024

Citation: Gu Z, Wang Y, Tang S, Shen C. A clinical study on the efficacy of modified Sangsu Guiling Decoction in the treatment of pulmonary hypertension due to left-sided heart disease. Trop J Pharm Res 2024; 23(3):561-569 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v23i3.10

© 2024 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy/effectiveness of modified Sangsu Guiling Decoction (SSGD) formula when used in combination with standard Western medicine in the treatment of pulmonary hypertension caused by left-sided heart disease (PH-LHD).

Methods: A randomized controlled study was carried out on 60 PH-LHD patients recruited from Changzhou Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital. The patients were randomly assigned to 2 groups, each with 30 subjects. The conventional Western medicine treatment for the control group comprised oral intake of 5 mg of andrisentan daily, 0.5 g of amoxicillin capsules every 6 to 8 h (for the patients who had infections, with daily dose not exceeding 4 g); 2.5 mg of enalapril, once daily, and 25 mg of metoprolol, twice daily. The study group received 400 mL of the modified SSGD formula in soup form, in addition to the conventional Western medicine therapy. The treatments lasted three months. In both groups, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) symptom scoring, 6-minute walk test (6MWT), WHO functional classification, echocardiography, and assay of biochemical indicators were carried out, both before and after the 3-month treatment course.

Results: After 3-month treatments, there were significant improvements in the study group (p < 0.05) in terms of clinical symptom scores, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), interleukin 6 (IL-6), left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), 6MWT distance, systolic pulmonary artery pressure (sPAP), WHO functional classification, and soluble suppression of tumorigenesis-2 (sST2) levels, relative to the control group (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: The combined use of modified SSGD formula and standard Western medicine improves the conditions of PH-LHD patients, enhances physical endurance, and reduces pulmonary systolic pressure. The combination treatment also mitigates inflammatory response, and minimizes the adverse effects caused by TCM, resulting in the enhancement of overall quality of life. Subsequent studies should involve long-term follow-up in order to determine the long-term effects of treatment.

Keywords: Modified Sangsu Guiling Decoction, Pulmonary hypertension, Left-sided heart disease, 6-minute walk test, WHO functional classification