title: Essential hypertension treated by wuling powder and modified tianma gouteng decoction: a cohort study without controls.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the efficacy and safety of wuling powder and modified tianma gouteng decoction as an open add-on therapy for treating essential hypertension (EH).
  
  
  METHODS
  72 cases of EH patients took wuling powder and modified tianma gouteng decoction for 2 weeks to treat EH without changing their former medication. New York Heart Association (NYHA) heart function classification, heart rate, blood pressure and 6-min walking test were evaluated before and after treatment.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Wuling powder and modified tianma gouteng decoction decreased the EH patients' heart rate, systolic pressure, diastolic pressure and increased the 6-min walking distance very significantly (P<0.01). The total effective rate on blood pressure was 91.7%, and the total effective rate on NYHA heart function improvement was 95.1%. No serious side effect appeared.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  From this study, treating EH with wuling powder and modified tianma gouteng decoction as an open add-on therapy seems to be effective and safe. Further randomized trials are needed to test the positive findings.
authors.affiliation: The University of Hong Kong, School of Chinese Medicine, 999077, Hong Kong, China. Electronic address: keyoufu@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Youfu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ke
authors.forename: Jinbao
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pu
authors.forename: Junxian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zheng
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000075222:Essential Hypertension; D005260:Female; D006334:Heart Function Tests / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000188:drug therapy*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008517:Phytotherapy / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; C533472:wuling; C087631:gou-teng
keywords: Chronic heart failure; Essential hypertension; Tianma gouteng decoction; Wuling powder