Cor pulmonale (pulmonary heart disease) is a chronic progressive complicated disease for which treatment needs to be sustained all the time, creating a great financial burden on individuals and society. In order to improve the life quality of cor pulmonale patients and decrease the dosage and quantity of the routine treatment, in China, TCM is often administered to patients with cor pulmonale. The results of many clinical trials have indicated that Salvia miltiorrhiza and complex Salvia miltiorrhiza injection may be an alternative medicine for cor pulmonale. With the purpose to prove whether Salvia miltiorrhiza and complex Salvia miltiorrhiza benefit the cor pulmonale patients, respectively, we carried out a systematic review to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Salvia miltiorrhiza and complex Salvia miltiorrhiza injection in cor pulmonale patients. Overall, 2,715 patients were identified from 35 randomized controlled trials. The meta-analysis used I(2) test for heterogeneity and chose random or fixed model according to heterogeneity of included studies. Clinical outcomes were evaluated by total effectiveness rate, partial pressure of oxygen ( PaO 2) and carbon dioxide ( PaCO 2), hemorheology, mPAP and adverse effects. Compared with routine medicine treatment alone, routine medicine treatment plus Salvia miltiorrhiza or complex Salvia miltiorrhiza injection showed better outcomes: A significantly higher clinical effectiveness rate ratio (p < 0.001), increase in PaO 2 (p < 0.001) and decrease in PaCO 2 (p < 0.001), improvement in hemorheology (p < 0.001), and alleviation in mPAP (p < 0.05). There is no obvious adverse effect reported. In summary, there are some evidences suggesting that Salvia miltiorrhiza or complex Salvia miltiorrhiza injection are active in cor pulmonale, however, the results were limited by the methodological flaws of the included studies. Long-term and high quality clinical trials are needed to provide more conclusive evidence for the future use of Salvia miltiorrhiza injection.
Keywords: Cor pulmonale; Meta-Analysis; Pulmonary Heart Disease; RCT; Salvia miltiorrhiza.