Effects of Xuezhikang and pravastatin on circulating endothelial progenitor cells in patients with essential hypertension.

Objective: To investigate the impacts of Xuezhikang (XZK) or pravastatin combined with antihypertensive drugs on circulating endothelial progenitor cells (CEPCs) in essential hypertensive (EH) patients.

Methods: Eighty-eight EH patients were enrolled into the study and randomly assigned to the antihypertensive drug treatment group (ATH group, 29 cases), the pravastatin treatment group (PRA group, 29 cases) and the Xuezhikang treatment group (XZK group, 30 cases). Patients in the 3 groups were treated with routine antihypertensive drugs.