Clinical Trials Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Cardiol. Aug 26, 2021; 13(8): 348-360
Published online Aug 26, 2021. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v13.i8.348
Nutritional supplement drink reduces inflammation and postoperative depression in patients after off-pump coronary artery bypass surgery
Satoshi Matsushita, Akie Shimada, Taira Yamamoto, Kazuo Minematsu, Hirotaka Inaba, Kenji Kuwaki, Atsushi Amano
Satoshi Matsushita, Akie Shimada, Taira Yamamoto, Hirotaka Inaba, Kenji Kuwaki, Atsushi Amano, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Juntendo University Faculty of Medicine, Tokyo 113-8421, Japan
Kazuo Minematsu, Department of School Health, Graduate School of Education, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki 852-8521, Japan
Hirotaka Inaba, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Juntendo University Urayasu Hospital, Chiba 279-0021, Japan
Kenji Kuwaki, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Tokai University Hachioji Hospital, Tokyo 192-0032, Japan
Author contributions: Matsushita S, Shimada A, Yamamoto T, Inaba H, Kuwaki K and Amano A designed the study; Shimada A, Yamamoto T, Inaba H, Kuwaki K and Amano A enrolled the patients and collected the data; Minematsu K interpreted statistical data analyses; Matsushita S and Minematsu K prepared tables and figures; Matsushita S wrote the first draft of the manuscript; all authors read, edited, and approved the manuscript for submission.
Institutional review board statement: The institutional review board of Juntendo University Hospital approved the study protocol (approval No. 13-110).
Clinical trial registration statement: The study was registered on Japanese clinical trial registry (UMIN-CTR: No. UMIN000012186).
Informed consent statement: All study participants provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Sato Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd supported this study by providing the nutritional supplement drink (Yunker DCF®) and by defraying the fee for cytokine level measurement.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
CONSORT 2010 statement: The authors have read the CONSORT 2010 statement, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CONSORT 2010 statement.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Satoshi Matsushita, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Juntendo University Faculty of Medicine, 2-1-1 Hongo Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8421, Japan. saty-m@juntendo.ac.jp
Received: January 28, 2021
Peer-review started: January 28, 2021
First decision: May 6, 2021
Revised: May 13, 2021
Accepted: July 20, 2021
Article in press: July 20, 2021
Published online: August 26, 2021
Processing time: 207 Days and 5.4 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Coronary artery bypass grafting is a surgical treatment for ischemic heart disease. Although development in surgical technique and improvement of perioperative management reduced the postoperative complications, some patients still delayed in progress of postoperative rehabilitation. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effect of daily intake of an herbal medicine-containing drink for rehabilitation after surgery in patients with ischemic heart disease.

AIM

To investigate the effect of taking an herbal medicine-containing, commercially available drink for postoperative rehabilitation in those patients.

METHODS

Patients who underwent isolated off-pump coronary artery bypass (OPCAB) surgery were divided into two groups depend on the timing of the admission to the hospital: the Yunker (YKR) group, that consumed one bottle of a caffeine-free nutritional supplement drink on a daily basis and the control group (CTL) that underwent regular rehabilitation.

RESULTS

A total of 229 patients (CTL = 130, YKR = 99) were enrolled. No significant differences were observed in the baseline characteristics between the two groups. The YKR group had a significantly increased number of daily steps postoperatively (P < 0.05) and had significantly lower postoperative serum tumor necrosis factor-alpha levels (P < 0.01), while no significant differences were observed in the levels of other inflammatory or stress-related cytokines (interleukin-6, adiponectin, superoxide dismutase, and urine 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine) between the two groups. Also, the YKR group showed a significant improvement in the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Score (P < 0.05). Moreover, there were no differences in postoperative complications and the duration of postoperative hospital stay between the two groups.

CONCLUSION

Our results demonstrated that the daily intake of an herbal medicine-containing drink after OPCAB surgery may have beneficial effects on cardiac rehabilitation by reducing inflammation markers and depression.

Keywords: Herbal medicine; Inflammation; Cardiac rehabilitation; Moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity; Off-pump coronary artery bypass

Core Tip: Ischemic heart disease is still a major cause of death in the developed country. Cardiac rehabilitation for the patients who underwent coronary artery bypass grafting surgery has known to be associated with early recover. Daily intake of an herbal medicine-containing drink after the surgery enhances the postoperative cardiac rehabilitation by reducing inflammation and improving depression.