Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the influences of Simvastatin (Zocor) on nitric oxide (NO), calcitonin gene related peptide (CGRP) and endothelin (ET) in blood plasma of patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) complicated with congestive heart failure (CHF).
Patients and methods: 80 cases of patients with CHD complicated with CHF were randomly divided into two groups: the conventional treatment (control) group (Digoxin, Dihydrochlorothiazide, Isosorbide dinitrate) containing 40 cases and the conventional treatment and Simvastatin (combination) combination group containing 40 cases. In addition, there were 40 healthy persons in the normal group. Greiss method was used for NO detection, and immunoradiometry method was used to detect CGRP and ET levels in blood before and after treatment.
Results: NO and CGRP levels in blood of patients with CHD complicated with CHF was apparently lower than those of the normal group, and there were significant differences (p < 0.01). Also, ET was significantly higher than that of the normal group (p < 0.01). After treatment, all indicators were significantly improved (p < 0.01). Also, the improvement of the conventional treatment plus Simvastatin group was more significant. Compared with the conventional treatment group after treatment, there was a significant difference (p < 0.05).
Conclusions: The combination of conventional treatment and Simvastatin could significantly improve metabolic disturbances of NO, CGRP and ET of patients with CHD complicated with CHF.