RESUMEN
Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic metabolic disease characterized by hyperglycemia. Its main complications of diabetes, such as diabetic angiopathy, have seriously affected the quality of life for patients, and have become an important cause of death and disability. The underlying pathological changes include macrovascular lesions and microvascular lesions. Diabetic macrovascular lesions mainly involve thoracic aorta, coronary artery, carotid artery, cerebral artery and peripheral blood vessels, etc., and the common clinical diseases include coronary heart disease, stroke, peripheral neuropathy, lower extremity arteriosclerosis, etc. Diabetic microvascular lesions mainly involve the heart, brain, kidney and other microvessels. Nowadays, various new oral hypoglycemic agents and insulin have emerged in the society and are widely used in clinical practice. However, traditional Chinese medicines(TCMs) have stable curative effect, less side effect, and can improve glucose metabolism, lipid metabolism, insulin resistance, oxidative stress, expression of inflammatory cytokines, vascular endothelial injury, microcirculation disorders, balance of fibrinolysis system and blood coagulation system, and improve the syndromes of TCMs, etc. They have been widely recognized and applied in the prevention and treatment of diabetic angiopathy. A profound understanding on the etiology, pathogenesis and treatment of diabetic angiopathy has been formed in Chinese medicine. Therefore, in this paper, we would summarizes the understanding on Chinese medicine for diabetic angiopathy and the mechanism of Yiqi Huoxue prescription in the treatment of diabetic angiopathy in the past three years.