Application of infrared thermal imaging in the study of preventing cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases with Chinese medicine health food

摘要

To explore the assessing technique which could objectively reflect the characteristics of Chinese medicine in the prevention of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, four balance features of infrared thermal images (ITI ) corresponding to the up and down, left and right, proximal and distal balance of blood circulation of human body were studied. First, the ITI features of the middle-aged and elderly people with lipid abnormality history were compared with those of the healthy youth. It was found that the balance state of the youth was significantly better than that of the middle-aged and elderly, P≤0.01 for all the balance features. For the youth, the balance state of females was better than that of the males. But this sexual difference disappeared for the middle-aged and elderly group. Second, a double-blind randomized trial was carried out to study the influences of Shengyi capsule, a Chinese medicine health food with the function of helping to decrease serum lipid, on the balance features. The subjects were middle-aged and elderly people with lipid abnormality history. Shengyi capsule was taken by the trial group while Xuezhikang capsule (with lovastatin as the main effective component) by the control group for 108 days. The balance features of ITI showed that Shengyi was significantly better than Xuezhikang in improving the whole body balance of blood circulation (including the up and down, left and right, proximal and distal balance). The relative efficacy rate was 81.0% for the trial group and 33.3% for the control group, there was significant difference between the two groups (P=0.002). Shengyi could effectively decrease the low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) but the effect of Xuezhikang in decreasing total cholesterol (TC) and LDL-C was better than Shengyi. Though the lipid-lowering effect of Shengyi was not as good as Xuezhikang, ITI reflected the obvious advantage of Shengyi in improving the whole body balance of blood circulation which indicated that helping to decrease serum lipid is only part of the health function of Shengyi. The physiology and pathology basis of the influences of Shengyi on the four balance features and its relationship with the clinical outcome deserves further study. So the prospect of infrared thermal imaging is indicated as the suitable evaluation technique which could objectively reflect the whole balance regulation advantage of Chinese medicinal compounds.