OralPanax notoginsengPreparation for Coronary Heart Disease: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials

Abstract

This systematic review aims to evaluate current evidence for the benefit and side effect of oralPanax notoginsengpreparation for coronary heart disease (CHD). We included 17 randomized clinical trials (17 papers and 1747 participants). Comparing with no intervention on the basis of conventional therapy, oralPanax notoginsengdid not show significant effect on reducing cardiovascular events, but it could alleviate angina pectoris (including improving the symptoms of angina pectoris [RR 1.20; 95% CI 1.12 to 1.28; 7 trials,n=791], improving electrocardiogram [RR 1.35; 95% CI 1.19 to 1.53; 8 trials,n=727], decreasing the recurrence of angina pectoris [RR 0.38; 95% CI 0.16 to 0.94; 1 trials,n=60], duration of angina pectoris [RR −1.88; 95% CI −2.08 to −1.69; 2 trials,n=292], and dosage of nitroglycerin [MD −1.13; 95% CI −1.70 to −0.56; 2 trials,n=212]); oralPanax notoginsenghad no significant difference compared with isosorbide dinitrate on immediate effect for angina pectoris [RR 0.96; 95% CI 0.81 to 1.15; 1 trial,n=80]. In conclusion, oralPanax notoginsengpreparation could relieve angina pectoris related symptoms. However, the small sample size and potential bias of most trials influence the convincingness of this conclusion. More rigorous trials with high quality are needed to give high level of evidence, especially for the potential benefit of cardiovascular events.