Clinical Research on SFI
SFI is composed of Panax ginseng C.A.Mey. and Aconitum carmichaeli Debeaux, and has properties that include enhancing cardiac function, increasing blood pressure, and protecting ischemic myocardium. It is widely used to rescue from shock (infectious or cardiogenic shock) caused by various reasons, cardiac failure, and arrhythmia in clinical practice. Recent studies have shown that SFI significantly protects against lung injury (see  Table 3 ). SFI has been recommended in China’s SARS Diagnosis and Treatment Scheme (Version 2004), the MERS Diagnosis and Treatment Scheme (Version 2015), and the Diagnosis and Treatment Scheme for Human Infections with H7N9 Avian Influenza (Version 2017).
Qiu Z.L. et al. observed a therapeutic effect of SFI in patients with severe sepsis and an impact on the expression levels of serum IL-6 and IL-10. They found that SFI significantly lowered IL-6 levels in patients with severe sepsis and regulated the balance between pro- and anti-inflammatory factors, thus, improving the therapeutic effect (Qiu et al., 2012). Ning Zhang et al. randomized 160 patients with sepsis into an SFI treatment group and a conventional treatment group. By collecting post-treatment immunological parameters, they conducted a comparative analysis of the impact on immune function. The results showed that patients in the SFI treatment group had increased CD4+ and CD8+ T cell counts in peripheral blood and upregulated HLA-DR expression in monocytes. In addition, the SFI treatment group had a better response than the control group for duration of vasopressor administration and APACHE-II score. The results showed that SFI enhanced cellular immune function in patients with septic shock and might become an important adjunctive therapy for sepsis patients (Zhang et al., 2017). Another study found that SFI played an active role in the treatment of severe pneumonia in the elderly. Among 89 elderly patients with severe pneumonia, the SFI treatment group had significantly decreased levels of TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-8 7 days after administration, indicating that SFI effectively reduced inflammatory mediators, thus, playing an active therapeutic effect (Lv et al., 2017). Min Ma et al. conducted clinical research on 80 patients with traumatic acute lung injury, and found that SFI significantly improved respiratory rate, improved the oxygen index, and reduced levels of intracellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1), endothelin-1 (ET-1), and NO, thus, improving prognosis of these patients. This study provided a potential new therapy for traumatic acute lung injury (Ma et al., 2019). Jie Li et al. observed an impact of SFI intervention on duration of mechanical ventilation in patients with respiratory failure. The results showed that the total response rate in the SFI group was higher than that of the control group. SFI significantly improved serum prealbumin and high-sensitivity CRP levels in patients with respiratory failure and improved their oxygen index, thus, shortening the duration of mechanical ventilation (Li, 2013).