Objective: To assess whether Xuezhikang was effective in the secondary prevention of coronary heart disease (CHD) for patients with different length of myocardial infarction (MI) history.
Methods: 2135 patients with MI history of 28 days to 3 months and 2735 patients with MI history of 3 months to 60 months were recruited separately to receive treatment with Xuezhikang capsule or placebo. The primary end-points were nonfatal myocardial infarction and death from CHD.
Results: The occurrence of coronary events were found to be not statistically significantly different for the two groups of patients. For patients with MI history of 28 days to 3 months, Xuezhikang significantly reduced the risk of CHD events by 56.7% (P < 0.0001) and resulted in a 48.6% (P = 0.0002) risk reduction in all-cause mortality as compared with placebo. For patients with MI history of 3 months to 60 months, Xuezhikang significantly decreased the risk of CHD events by 35.3% (P = 0.0008) and led to a 20.0% (P = 0.1181) risk reduction in the all-cause mortality as compared with placebo. Adverse effects and abnormal laboratory parameters did not differ significantly in the two groups of patients.
Conclusions: Xuezhikang is more effective for patients with MI history of 28 days to 3 months as compared with patients with MI history of 3 months to 60 months. Patients with MI history should be treated with Xuezhikang early in order to achieve better prevention of CHD.