OBJECTIVETo investigate the nationwide status of intervention therapy for heart diseases (hIT) in Chinese medicine and integrated medical hospitals in China, and to push forward the development of intervention technique.

METHODSHospitals met the inclusion criteria were screened out by searching the "database of hospitals and medical institutions in China" from the Chinese Medical Network; and related materials from them were gathered with questionnaires by mail.

RESULTSReply was gathered from 239 of the 250 questionnaires mailed, by which, it was known that hIT has been carried out in 37 hospitals, until May 2009, a total of 34 327 cases of coronary angiography was completed, percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) was performed in 12 670 patients with coronary heart disease, 3 631 patients received pacemaker implantation, 2 187 cases of radiofrequency catheter ablation, and 652 cases of congenital heart disease related interventional therapy were accomplished. Additional, 13 hospitals (35.1%) had annually completed more than 200 cases of coronary angiography or 100 cases of PCI.

CONCLUSIONShLT technique has been developed to a definite extent in Chinese medicine/integrated medical hospitals, which plays an important role in promoting the integrative medical research on cardiovascular diseases. However, related policy, support and normalization are necessary for its healthy and well-ordered development.