Doctor Zhuofeng Gao has the great of experiences and attainments in the field of cardiovascular diseases. His experiences in differentiation treatment of arrhythmia are introduced as follows:
1. Qi and yin deficiency
The main symptom with palpitation, shortness of breath, lassitude, dryness of mouth, pink dry tongue, weak, thready, knotted and intermittent pulse or rapid and weak pulse. The recipe is: Xi Yang Shen [3] 6g or Tai Zi Shen [4] 30g, Mai Men Dong [5] 10g, Wu Wei Zi [6] 6g, Huang Qi [7] 15g, Dang Gui [8] 12g, Long Yan Rou [9] 30g, Gan Song (Rhizoma Nardostachyos) 10g, Zhi Gan Cao [10] 6g. Clinically, this type of arrhythmia occurs most frequently in viral myocarditis accompanied with arrhythmia. Then this type of arrhythmia also occurs in rheumatic cardiac disease and cardiomyopathy.
2. Qi deficiency and Blood Stasis
The main symptoms with oppressive sensation in the chest or stabbing pain in the heart and chest, shortness of breath, spontaneous perspiration, dark purple tongue with or without ecchymosis, deep, slow, knotted and intermittent pulse. Recipe: Tai Zi Shen 20g, Huang Qi 30g, Dan Shen [11] 30g, Chuan Xiong [12] 10g, Hong Hua [13] 9g, San Qi [14] powder 2g, Jiang Xiang [15] 10g, Long Yan Rou 30g, and Zhi Gan Cao 6g. Clinically, this type of arrhythmia occurs usually in coronary heart disease or rheumatic heart disease with presystole, conduction block, etc.
3. Qi stagnation and Blood Stasis
The main symptoms with stabbing pain in the chest, feeling of fullness in bilateral hypochondria, dark purple tongue with or without ecchymosis, and tight, knotted but forceful pulse. Recipe: Modified Xue Fu Zhu Yu Tang, Chai Hu [16] 9g, Gui Zhi [17] 6g, Dang Gui 10g, Chuan Xiong 10g, Chi Shao [18] 10g, Tao Ren [19] 9g, Hong Hua 9g, Dan Shen 20g, Jie Geng [20] 9g, Niu Xi [21] 10g, Zhi Ke 10g, Xie Bai [22] 10g, Gan Cao 3g. It occurs mainly in patients suffering from coronary heart disease, angina pectoris with arrhythmia. They are often the middle-aged with sthenic qi.
4. Heart and kidney yang deficiency
The main symptoms with palpitation or severe palpitation, coldness of the body and extremities, faint corpulent and tender tongue with teeth-marks, and deep, slow, weak pulse or deep, thready, knotted and intermittent pulse. Recipe: Modified Bao Yuan Tang combined with Gui Zhi Fu Zi [23] Tang, which consists of Hong Shen 6g, Huang Qi 15g, Gui Zhi 9g, prepared Fu Zi 6g, Shan Zhu Yu [24] 12g, Dan Shen 20g, Chuan Xiong 10g, Hong Hua 9g, Fu Ling [25] 15g, Xing Ren [26] 9g, and Zhi Gan Cao 6g. This type of arrhythmia often occurs in patients with severe and prolonged course of the disease.
Dr. Gao has treated 226 cases of arrhythmia. 125 cases were markedly effective (55.31%), 95 were effective (42.04%) and 6 were ineffective (2.65%), the total effective rate being 97.35%. Among the 226 patient, 118 cases with deficiency of qi and yin, 69 cases with qi deficiency and blood stasis, 23 cases with deficiency of heart yang and kidney yang, and 16 cases with stagnation of qi and blood stasis.
Key Words: Arrhythmia, herb treatment
Writer: Xiufen Liu, Chunying Yu
Hebei Provincial Hospital, Shijiazhuang 050051, Hebei Province
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