Objectives To investigate the effect of the compositie salviae dropping pill on blood lipids and large artery elasticity in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) or coronary risk factors.

Methods 63 patients with CHD or coronary risk factors were randomly divided into two groups: trial group (n=32), received compositie salviae dropping pill 10 pill three times a day in addition to routine therapy; control group (n=31), treated with routine therapy. All subjects underwent laboratory measurements including the concentrations of serum total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high density lipoprotein (HDL-C), fast blood sugar (FBS), and high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) before and 4, 24 weeks after the treatment. Carotid-femoral PWV (cfPWV), carotid-radial PWV (crPWV) and femoral-ankle PWV (faPWV) in both groups were measured by PP-1000 automatic PWV measuring system before and after the treatment.

Results There were no significant difference in the baseline parameters between two groups (all p>0.05). After treatment for 24 weeks, there was a notable decrease of TG and hs-CRP levels in both two groups (p<0.05 or 0.01) and TC and LDL-C levels in trial group (p<0.01). After 24 weeks, the LDL-C level was lower in trial group than in control group (p<0.01). 24 weeks later, cfPWV and faPWV were significantly lower in trial group than baseline and in control group (all p<0.01), but the difference of the crPWV in both groups was not significant in comparison with baseline (all p>0.05).

Conclusions The compositie salviae dropping pill, a traditional Chinese medicine, can decrease blood lipids and improve large artery elasticity in patients with CHD or coronary risk factors.