Essential hypertension treated by wuling powder and modified tianma gouteng decoction: A cohort study without controls

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).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.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 (P0.01). 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.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.