Regular paperEfficacy and safety of berberine for congestive heart failure secondary to ischemic or idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy
Section snippets
Patients
From January 1992 to May 2001, 156 patients with chronic CHF (94 men and 62 women) were studied in a single center; their mean age was 64 ± 14 years (range 45 to 96). There were 47 patients in New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class II, 78 in class III, and 31 in class IV. In addition, they had frequent VPCs (>90 beats/hour) and/or nonsustained ventricular tachycardia (VT), defined as 3 consecutive beats but <30 beats. All patients had a decreased LVEF (22 ± 12%, range 10% to 34%)
Clinical results at 8 weeks
There was a greater improvement of cardiac function in patients treated with berberine than in the placebo group (NYHA classification from 2.9 ± 0.5 to 2.0 ± 0.3 in the treatment group vs 2.9 ± 0.5 to 2.4 ± 0.4 in placebo group, p <0.001.
Six-minute walking test and LVEF
After 8 weeks of treatment, there was a greater increase in 6-minute walking distance and LVEF in the berberine group than those treated with placebo (Table 2).
Table 3shows that there was a statistically significant difference in the aggregate score of
Discussion
In this study we found that treatment of patients with CHF with berberine was safe and beneficial. There was improved exercise capacity as evidenced by an increase in the 6-minute walking test. This may be partially due to the increase in LV function alone or together with a decrease in blood pressure. The latter is due to its α-adrenergic receptor effects and possibly a central sympathetic effect.11, 12, 13 Berberine also had a favorable effect on quality-of-life assessment. In addition, it
Acknowledgements
We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Dr. Frank Marcus for his advice, with the design of this study and in writing the manuscript.
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