A study of relationships between traditional Chinese medicine syndrome differentiation and serum cystatin C and homocysteine in patients with chronic heart failure / 中国中西医结合急救杂志

ABSTRACT

ObjectiveTo investigate the relationships between traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) syndrome differentiation and serum cystatin C(Cys-C) and homocysteine(Hcy) in patients with chronic heart failure(CHF). Methods 115 cases with CHF admitted into the Department of Cardiology of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University were selected in the CHF group, and 30 cases who had taken health examination in the same period were chosen in the healthy control group. According to the TCM syndrome differentiation, the CHF cases were subdivided into four groups with different types of syndrome: 30 cases of deficiency of both Qi and Yin syndrome, 30 cases of Qi deficiency syndrome and blood stagnation syndrome, 30 cases of heart and kidney Yang deficiency syndrome and 25 casesof flooding due to Yang deficiency syndrome. The serum levels of Cys-C and Hcy in different groups were tested, and the relationships between TCM syndrome differentiation and serum Cys-C and Hcy were analyzed by using Spearman rank correlation analysis.Results The serum levels of Cys-C and Hcy in the patients with CHF were significantly higher than those in the healthy control group〔Cys-C(mg/L):1.24±0.34 vs. 0.77±0.22, Hcy(μmol/L):18.66±4.57 vs. 11.65±3.21,bothP<0.05〕. Compared with the healthy control group, the serum levels of Cys-C and Hcy in the above four groups of different syndromes had a tendency of gradual elevation in the sequence as follows: deficiency of both Qi and Yin, Qi deficiency and blood stagnation, heart and kidney Yang deficiency and flooding due to Yang deficiencygroups〔Cys-C(mg/L):1.02±0.27,1.09±0.31,1.32±0.22, 1.59±0.25; Hcy(μmol/L): 14.94±2.20, 17.66±3.04, 19.79±3.48, 22.96±5.31〕, and the elevation in levels of flooding due to Yang deficiency group was the most prominent compared with that in other groups(P<0.05). The correlation analyses showed that different types of TCM syndrome in patients with CHF were positively correlated with the levels of Cys-C and Hcy(r1=0.73,r2=0.79,bothP<0.05).ConclusionThe changes of serum Cys-C and Hcy levels are consistent with the evolution of regular pattern of TCM syndrome differentiation in patients with CHF, and these two markers can be regarded as the objective indicators of TCM syndrome differentiation of CHF.