title: A preliminary study on the inhibitory effect of Chunghyul-dan on stroke recurrence in patients with small vessel disease.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Chunghyul-dan is a combinatorial herbal medicine, and previous works reported that it had therapeutic effects for microangiopathy, which is a major part in the progression of small vessel disease, as having anti-hypertensive, anti-hyperlipidemic, anti-apoptotic, anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory activities. Therefore, we examined the inhibitory effect of Chunghyul-dan on stroke recurrence in patients with small vessel disease.
  
  
  METHODS
  We prescribed Chunghyul-dan 600 mg a day to the patients with small vessel disease, and monitored stroke recurrence, drug compliances and adverse effect for 2 years. And then we performed follow-up brain MRI to find new vascular lesion after 2 years of Chunghyul-dan medication. As for the control, we recruited the subjects who had been managed with antiplatelet agents from a western medical hospital, and compared the rate of stroke recurrence.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were 148 subjects who had been treated with Chunghyul-dan for 2 years, and new vascular events were found in three subjects. On the other hand, 208 subjects were managed with anti-platelet agents for 2 years in a Western medical hospital, and 17 of them had stroke recurrence. Therefore, 2 years of Chunghyul-dan medication reduced the odds ratio of stroke recurrence by 77% compared to the anti-platelet agents managed control. The inhibition rate increased to 79%, when adjusted for other relevant risk factors for stroke occurrence. During the study, no adverse effect was detected.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We suggest that Chunghyul-dan could be useful for inhibition of stroke recurrence by preventing the progression of microangiopathy. Further study with a randomized controlled trial is needed to confirm this suggestion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular and Neurologic Diseases (Stroke Center), College of Oriental Medicine, Kyung-Hee University, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: KiHo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: KiHwan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Noh
authors.forename: WooSang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.forename: SeongUk
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: SangKwan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Moon
authors.forename: JungMi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: ChangNam
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ko
authors.forename: YoungSuk
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: HyungSup
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bae
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D055502:Secondary Prevention; D020521:Stroke / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D014652:Vascular Diseases / Q000150:complications
chemical_list: C499382:Chunghyuldan; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal