Danhong Injection (a Traditional Chinese Patent Medicine) for Acute Myocardial Infarction: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Objective. We aimed to systematically assess the efficacy and safety of Danhong injection (DHI) for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients. Methods. We searched several electrical databases and hand searched several Chinese medical journals. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing DHI plus conventional western medicine with conventional western medicine plus placebo and RCTs comparing DHI plus conventional western medicine with conventional western medicine were retrieved. Study screening, data extraction, quality assessment, and data analysis were conducted in accordance with the Cochrane standards. Results. 13 RCTs enrolling 979 patients were included. Danhong injection could significantly reduce the risk of mortality, recurrent angina, arrhythmia, and heart failure. In addition, DHI was associated with improvement of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and reperfusion. No significant difference of DHI was found on recurrent acute myocardial infarction. However, the safety of DHI remained unknown for limited data. Conclusion. DHI might be a potentially efficacious treatment for AMI patients. Nevertheless, the safety of DHI remained uncertain for limited information. Due to the fact that the overall quality of all included studies is generally low, more high quality RCTs are expected to validate the efficacy and safety of DHI for AMI patients.