Objective To observe the clinical efficacy of comprehensive treatment of basic western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine（ TCM） in the treatment of vascular dementia（ VD） and to discuss its possible mechanism. Methods In total 208 VD patients were randomly assigned to the treatment group（ 110 cases） and control group（ 108 cases）. The treatment group was given basic western medicine

TCM syndrome differentiation treatment

acupuncture

rehabilitation training and nursing

while the control group were given basic western medicine

donepezil

rehabilitation training and nursing. The observation time was for 2 months. The cognitive function（ ADAS-Cog scale）and activity of daily living（ ADL） were evaluated. The serum levels of superoxide dismutase（ SOD）

malondialdehyde（ MDA）

endothelin（ ET） and nitric oxide（ NO） were detected before and after treatment. Results The total effective rate in treatment group（ 66. 99%） was higher than that in the control group（ 57. 00%

P < 0. 05）.After treatment

the ADL and ADAS-Cog scores were significantly improved in both groups（ P < 0. 05 or P < 0. 01）

and the improvement in the treatment group was superior to that in the control group（ P < 0. 05）. The level of SOD increased

while the levels of MDA

ET and NO decreased significantly after treatment in both groups（ P < 0. 05 or P < 0. 01）

and the improvements in the treatment group were superior to that in the control group（ P < 0. 05）.Conclusion Comprehensive treatment of basic western medicine and TCM could notably improve clinical efficacy and better the cognitive function and activity of daily living of VD patients

which is possibly related to the decreasing of serum level of ET and the regulation of SOD and MDA levels.