Objective: To study the therapeutic mechanism of combination therapy of ligustrazine and nitrendipine in treating patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Methods: Thirty COPD patients divided in to 3 groups (10 in each) were treated with ligustrazine, nitrendipine and ligustrazine plus nitrendipine respectively, and the changes of hemorrheologic parameters, plasma endothelin (ET-1), thromboxane A2(TXA2) and platelet-P-selectin (CD62P) before and after treatment were observed.
Results: The combination therapy of ligustrazine and nitrendipine could lower the levels of plasma ET-1, TXA2, CD62P and the hemorrheologic parameters.
Conclusion: Combination of ligustrazine and nitrendipine showed a therapeutic effect better than that of the two drugs used separately. Its effect in lowering pulmonary circulation resistance is related with the lowering of plasma vaso-contrictive factor and the changing of hemorrheologic properties. The integrated traditional Chinese and western medical therapy is valuable in treating COPD.