Clinical characteristics and treatment effects of astragalus injection in non-pediatric patients with acute fulminant myocarditis

To explore the clinical characteristics of non-pediatric patients with acute fulminant myocarditis (AFM) and evaluate the treatment effects of astragalus injection on this disease. A total of 54 AFM patients were screened out from 586 patients with acute myocarditis, admitted to the department of cardiology between January 2011 to June 2018. The demographic and clinical data, investigations, treatments, and short-term outcomes were collected and retrospectively analyzed. The mean age of the 54 AFM patients was 34 ± 16.5 years old (range: 13–70 years), including 24 (44.5%) men and 30 (55.5%) women, with a high incidence in 2 age groups: 13–19 and 40–49 years old, despite an inverse trend to the increase of age. All these cases were admitted in emergency conditions: 26 (48.1%) cardiogenic shock, 18 (33.4%) malignant arrhythmias, 8 (14.8%) severe heart failure, and 2 (3.7%) acute pericardial tamponade. Apart from first-aid measures, 37 (68.5%) patients received astragalus injection. During hospitalization, 11 (20.4%) patients died, and 4 (36.3%) of them were from astragalus group while 7 (63.7%) of them from without-astragalus group (P=0.03). Furthermore, the levels of cardiac injury biomarkers, renal function and left ventricular ejection fraction of astragalus group were significantly improved compared with those of without-astragalus group at discharge (all P < .05). Middle-aged people were also prone to AFM. And cardiac shock was the most common, while acute pericardial tamponade was a rare presentation in non-pediatric AFM patients. Astragalus was a potential adjuvant medicine for the treatment of AFM.