Heart rate variability (HRV) is commonly used to evaluate the short-term prognosis of coronary artery diseaseas a well-known non-invasive indicator of cardiac autonomic function. Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is a commonly usedsuigical treatment of coronary artery disease, however, major adverse cardiac event (MACE) such as malignant arrhythmias and recurrent myocardial infarction are common after suigical treatment. Although dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) can reduce the occurrence of MACE to a certain extent, it is prone to be complicated with gastrointestinal bleeding, and unable to consistently improve the prognosis of PCI. Ocular acupuncture can effectively reduce the duration and frequency of chest pain, and exercise therapy can enhance the function of heart and blood vessels. The application of ocular acupuncture and exercise combination therapy (OAECT) after PCI remains to be explored.

To investigate the effect of OAECT on postoperative heart rate variability and prognosis of patients treated with PCI.

A total of 32 CHD patients after PCI with moderate and low risk attending Hospital of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine were selected and randomly divided into the OAECT group and drug treatment group in a 1∶1 allocation ratio. Patients in the OAECT group received OAECT in addition to DAPT, patients in the drug treatment group received DAPT alone, patients in both 2 groups completed the 2-week intervention. The data of patients was collectedas follows: (1) Baseline indicators: gender, age, height, weight, blood pressure, respiratory rate, interval between onset and intervention, education level, occupation, severity of coronary artery disease, and number of underlying diseases. (2) Main indicators: HRV within 24 h after PCI and on the day of the end of 2-week intervention, including the standard deviation of all normal to normal RR intervals (SDNN) , standard deviation of all 5-minute RR intervals (SDANN) , mean of the standard deviation of all NN intervals for all 5-min segment of 24 hours (SDNN index) , root mean square of difference between adjacent NN intervals (rMSSD) , percent of NN50 in the total number of NN intervals (PNN50) , high frequency (HF) , low frequency (LF) low frequency/high frequency (LF/HF) values. Prognosis at 2, 4, and 8 weeks after the intervention assessed by MACE, including cardiac or all-cause deaths, malignant arrhythmias such as ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation, severe heart failure, recurrent myocardial infarction, repeat PCI and chest pain recorded by telephone and outpatient consultations. (3) Secondary indicators: C-reactive protein (CRP) , N-terminal pro B type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) , creatine kinase isoenzyme (CK-MB) , high-sensitivity troponin I (hs-TnI) . (4) Safety indicators: the occurrence of complications after PCI such as subcutaneous hematoma, skin lesions, muscle soreness, respiratory abnormalities and stroke, all the outcome indicators were measured within 24 hours after PCI and on the day of the end of 2-week intervention.

There was no significant difference in LF/HF, SDNN, SDANN, SDNN index, LF, HF, RMSSD and PNN50 between the 2 groups (P>0.05) . There were significant differences in LF/HF, SDNN and SDANN (P<0.05) .CRP was higher in the drug treatment group than OAECT group after 2 weeks (P<0.05) ; there was no significant difference in NT-proBNP, CK-MB and hs-TnI between the 2 groups (P>0.05) . The incidence rates of MACE and adverse reactions in the OAECT group were lower than DAPT group (P<0.05) .

OAECT is more effective than drug treatment in improving HRV with a lower incidence rate of MACE and better prognosis for patients after PCI.