Clinical study on protective effect of astragalus injection plus ligustrazin in patients with myocardial ischemia reperfussion injury

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the mechanism of protective effect of Astragalus (As) plus ligustrazine (Lt) against myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury (MIRI) during open heart surgery of cardiopulmonary bypass, and the treating principle of MIRI in TCM.Methods: Twenty-four patients were randomly divided into three treated groups and treated with As injection, Lt injection and both (As + Lt) respectively, 6 in each group, and the remainder 6 were taken as control group. Blood samples of them were collected before anesthesia (T1), 10 minutes after occlusion of aorta (T2), 10 minutes(T3) and 30 minutes(T4) after the release, and end of operation (about 180 minutes after release, T5) respectively to test the levels of aspartate aminotransferase ( AST ), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), creatine kinase (CK), MB isoenzyme of CK (CK-MB), malondialdehyde (MDA) and the activity of Superoxide dismutase ( SOD ), nitric oxide ( NO ), nitric oxide synthetase (NOS).Results: The levels of AST, LDH, CK were reduced in the treated groups, showing significant difference (P< 0.05 or P < 0. 01 ) as compared with those in the control groups. Among them the effect in the AS + Lt group was the best. And NO activity in As group at T5 and As + Lt group at T4, T5 was higher than that in the control group.Conclusion : The mechanism of MIRI is Qi deficiency and blood stasis in TCM, its treating principles should be promoting Qi and removing blood stasis. According to the authors’ study, combined As + Lt therapy is more effective in protecting against MIRI than that using the 2 medicines separately.