Effect of Chinese Medicine on No or Slow Reflow after Percutaneous Coronary Intervention in Myocardial Infarction Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Objective: To systematic review the effect of Chinese medicine (CM) on no or slow reflow after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in myocardial infarction (MI) patients.

Methods: The PubMed, EMBASE databases, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chinese BioMedical Literature Database (CBM), Wanfang Knowledge Service Platform (Wanfang Database) and Chinese Scientific Journal Database (VIP) were searched up to December 2017. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) which evaluated the effect of CM therapies on no or slow reflow after PCI in MI patients were included. The primary outcome was the effect of reperfusion. Secondary outcomes were left ventricular ejection fraction, incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events and adverse effect.

Results: Ten RCTs covering 814 patients were included. Two studies revealed that the incidence of no or slow reflow was less in Shenmai Injection () group than in the control group measured by thrombolysis in myocardial infarction (TIMI) ⩽ 2 (risk ratio=0.55, 95% confidence interval 0.38 to 0.81, P=0.003, I²=37%). Two studies indicated that Salvianolate Injection showed no additional benefit on no or slow reflow measured by corrected TIMI frame count compared with the conventional treatment (mean difference -4.24, 95% confidence interval -13.03 to 4.54, P=0.34, I²=86%). In addition, Tongxinluo Capsules (), Danhong Injection () and Xuesaitong Injection () may have the potential to reduce no or slow reflow measured during or after PCI in individual studies.

Conclusions: Current evidence from RCTs are not sufficient to evaluate the effect of CM adjuvant therapies on no or slow reflow after PCI for MI patients. The included studies are limited by small sample size and unclear baseline conditions. Further rigorously designed researches and verification studies with sufficient number of patients are warranted.