Complementary Alternative Cardiovascular Medicine

108 Alternative Cardiovascular Medicine
therapy with CoQ 10, when compared with patients on conventional
therapy. Folkers et al. (28) reported the safety of CoQ 10 in patients
awaiting cardiac transplantation with improvement in their functional
class and proposed that this would allow a longer waiting period for a
donor heart. Baggio et al. (29) did the largest, multicenter, noncontrolled
study in 2664 patients with NYHA class II and III CHF. There was a
significant improvement in clinical signs and symptoms of heart failure
at the end of 3 mo of CoQ 10 therapy. In a Scandinavian multicenter study
of 79 patients (30), CoQ 10 resulted in slight improvement in EF, increased
maximal exercise capacity, and a decrease in scoring for leg fatigue and
dyspnea. It also significantly improved the QOL (p = 0.016).
Several studies have demonstrated no beneficial effects of CoQ 10
supplementation. Khatta et al. (31) performed a small (55 patient) randomized
clinical trial on the effect of CoQ 10. There was no increase in
ejection fraction, oxygen consumption, or exercise duration. Watson et al.
(32) also failed to demonstrate any improvement in resting left ventricular
systolic function or QOL with oral CoQ 10 in 27 patients with CHF.
Kamikawa et al. (33) reported the beneficial effect of CoQ 10 in 12
patients with chronic stable angina. In this small double-blinded, placebo-controlled,
randomized crossover study, oral CoQ 10 administration
was associated with reduced frequency of angina and lesser use of
nitroglycerine. There was also a significant increase in exercise time
(p < 0.05), with delay in the onset of ST-segment depression (p