[Clinical research of safflower injection on hibernating myocardial revascularization].

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is one of the leading causes of death. Safflower attracts great attention owing to its anti-ischemia/reperfusion injury effect. Ninety-three patients with CAD were included and randomized into safflower treatment group, PCI group and control group. Low-dose dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE) was performed to measure end-systolic volume (ESV), end-diastolic volume (EDV), left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and wall motion score index (WMSI) to determine the recovery of hibernating myocardium and cardiac function in all patients before treatment and after 3-month follow-up. The study was to investigate the effects of safflower on hibernating myocardial revascularization and cardiac function. It was found that LVEF was significantly improved, while the ESV and WMSI were significantly reduced after 2-week treatment in safflower and PCI treatment groups. No significant differences were found between safflower and PCI treatment groups in ESV, EDV, WMSI and LVEF after treatment Safflower injection effectively improved hibernating myocardial function.

Efficacy of intensive control of glucose in stroke prevention: a meta-analysis of data from 59,197 participants in 9 randomized controlled trials.

BACKGROUND: The efficacy of treatments that lower glucose in reducing the risk of incident stroke remains unclear. We therefore did a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the efficacy of intensive control of glucose in the prevention of stroke. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We systematically searched Medline, EmBase, and the Cochrane Library for trials published between 1950 and June, 2012. We included randomized controlled trials that reported on the effects of intensive control of glucose on incident stroke compared with standard care. Summary estimates of relative risk (RR) reductions were calculated with a random effects model, and the analysis was further stratified by factors that could affect the treatment effects. Of 649 identified studies, we included nine relevant trials, which provided data for 59,197 patients and 2037 events of stroke. Overall, intensive control of glucose as compared to standard care had no effect on incident stroke (RR, 0.96; 95%CI 0.88-1.06; P = 0.445). In the stratified analyses, a beneficial effect was seen in those trials when body mass index (BMI) more than 30 (RR, 0.86; 95%CI: 0.75-0.99; P = 0.041). No other significant differences were detected between the effect of intensive control of glucose and standard care when based on other subset factors. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our study indicated intensive control of glucose can effectively reduce the risk of incident stroke when patients with BMI more than 30.