Evaluation of Dominant Diseases of Traditional Chinese Medicine： A Case Study of Ischemic Stroke / 中国实验方剂学杂志

The present study explored the effective approaches to realize the leading role of traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） in preventing diseases， the synergistic role in treating serious diseases， the core role in the rehabilitation of diseases and summarized the experience to provide feasible plans for the evaluation of other dominant diseases of TCM. To evaluate the effectiveness， safety， and economy of TCM in the treatment of ischemic stroke， encephalopathy project team of the China Center for Evidence-based Traditional Chinese Medicine（CCEBTCM） established an evaluation group to determine the work plan and complete the evaluation work. The concepts of the evaluation involved high-quality evidence， expert opinion survey， expert interview， and drug catalog. Under the guidance of clinical experts and methodologists， the evaluation work was completed in accordance with four steps， i.e.， plan making， data collection and data extraction， evidence synthesis and evaluation， and report writing with the rapid review method. Through the review of TCM and western medicine experts， the advantage of TCM in the treatment of ischemic stroke was positioned in the convalescence period with the predominant effects of improving the neurological function defect and improving the daily living ability. In the convalescence period of stroke， TCM treatment could improve post-stroke motor dysfunction， post-stroke cognitive impairment， consciousness disorder， swallowing disorder， aphasia， constipation， urinary function， diplopia， etc.， and the advantages of acupuncture， Chinese medicine， and traditional exercise were more prominent. In terms of safety， TCM treatment of ischemic stroke showed lower incidence of adverse reactions， fewer adverse events， and a milder degree of related symptoms. In terms of economic performance， the combined treatment of TCM and western medicine played a synergistic role and made the treatment cost more reasonable. Compared with conventional intervention， the integrated TCM and western medicine rehabilitation program showed more economic and social benefits.

Expert consensus on clinical application of GBE50 Dispersible Tablets for ischemic cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases / 中国中药杂志

Ginkgo biloba Extract( GBE50) Dispersible Tablets is a new standardized prescription,which is widely used in the treatment of ischemic cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. However,there are still many problems in its clinical application.Rational and safe use of GBE50 Dispersible Tablets is pivotal to the medication safety and clinical prognosis of patients. This consensus has been jointly formulated by clinical experts of traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine in cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and followed the Manual for the Clinical Experts Consensus of Chinese Patent Medicine published by the China Association of Chinese Medicine. The present study identified clinical problems based on clinical investigation,searched the research papers according to PICO clinical problems,carried out evidence evaluation,classification,and recommendation by GRADE system,and reached the expert consensus with nominal group technique. The consensus combines evidence with expert experience. Sufficient evidence of clinical problems corresponds to " recommendations",while insufficient evidence to " suggestions". Safety issues of GBE50 Dispersible Tablets,such as indications,usage and dosage,and medication for special populations,are defined to improve clinical efficacy,promote rational medication,and reduce drug risks. This consensus needs to be revised based on emerging clinical issues and evidencebased updates in practical applications in the future.

Outcomes in randomized controlled trials of acupuncture for vascular cognitive impairment during recent five years / 中国针灸

The existing problems in the outcomes of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of acupuncture for vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) during recent five years are analyzed and suggestions are proposed. The RCTs of acupuncture for VCI were selected in PubMed, EMbase, Cochrane Library, Clinical Trials, CNKI database, Wanfang database, VIP database, SinoMed database and Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR) from January 1, 2015 to September 14, 2020. The outcomes were extracted and analyzed. As a result, 21 RCTs were included and the outcomes used were divided into 9 categories: clinical symptom/sign indexes, quality of life indexes, neuroimaging indexes, neuroelectrophysiology indexes, blood biochemical indexes, hemorheology indexes, TCM syndrome score indexes, clinical efficacy indexes, and safety indexes. Among them, the top three of the most used outcomes were clinical symptoms/signs indexes (21, 100.0%), clinical efficacy indexes (14, 66.7%) and quality of life indexes (12, 57.1%). In the RCTs of acupuncture for VCI, attention should be paid to distinguish the primary outcomes and secondary outcomes, adopt objective and standardized efficacy evaluation, and give consideration to report the outcomes of safety, health economic and TCM characteristic indexes.

Overview of systematic reviews of acupuncture for vascular cognitive impairment / 中国针灸

OBJECTIVE@#To overview the methodological quality, report quality and evidence quality of the systematic review (SR) of acupuncture for vascular cognitive impairment ( VCI ).@*METHODS@#The SRs regarding acupuncture for VCI were searched in PubMed, Cochrane Library, EMbase, CNKI, SinoMed, Wanfang and VIP databases. The retrieval period was from the establishment of the database to September 24, 2020. The report quality, methodological quality and evidence quality of the included SRs were evaluated by PRISMA statement, the AMSTAR 2 tool and the GRADE system.@*RESULTS@#A total of 22 SRs were included, including 102 outcome indexes. The methodological quality was generally low, with low scores on items 2, 5, 7, 10, 14, 15 and 16. The report quality was good, with scores ranging from 19 points to 24.5 points. The problems of report quality were mainly reflected in the aspects of structural abstract, program and registration, other analysis and funding sources. The level of outcome indexes of SRs was mostly low or very low, and the main leading factor was limitation, followed by inconsistency and inaccuracy.@*CONCLUSION@#Acupuncture for VCI is supported by low quality evidence of evidence-based medicine, but the methodological quality and evidence body quality of relevant SRs are poor, and the standardization is needed to be improved.

Systematic review and Meta-analysis of efficacy and safety of acupuncture therapy on hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage / 中国中药杂志

To systematically review the efficacy and safety of acupuncture combined with minimally invasive surgery or basic the-rapy in treating hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage(HICH) patients compared with minimally invasive surgery or basic treatment. In this study, the four Chinese databases, the four English databases, Chinese Clinical Trial Registry and ClinicalTrail.gov, all above were systematically and comprehensively retrieved from the time of database establishment to September 10, 2020. Rando-mized controlled trials(RCTs) were screened out according to inclusion criteria and exclusion criteria established in advanced. The methodological quality of included studies was evaluated by the tool named "Cochrane bias risk assessment 6.1". Meta-analysis of the included studies was performed using RevMan 5.4, and the quality of outcome indicators was evaluated by the GRADE system. Finally, 17 studies were included, involving 1 852 patients with HICH, and the overall quality of the included studies was not high. According to Meta-analysis,(1)CSS score of the group of acupuncture combined with minimally invasive surgery or basic therapy was superior to the group of minimally invasive surgery or basic therapy(MD=-3.50,95%CI[-4.39,-2.61],P<0.000 01);(2)NIHSS score of the group of acupuncture combined with minimally invasive surgery or basic therapy was superior to the group of minimally invasive surgery or basic therapy(MD=-4.78,95%CI[-5.55,-4.00],P<0.000 01);(3)the cerebral hematoma volume of the group of acupuncture combined with minimally invasive surgery or basic therapy was superior to the group of minimally invasive surgery or basic therapy(MD=-4.44,95%CI[-5.83,-3.04],P<0.000 01);(4)ADL score of the group of acupuncture combined with minimally invasive surgery or basic therapy was superior to the group of minimally invasive surgery or basic therapy(MD=20.81,95%CI[17.25,24.37],P<0.000 01);(5)the GCS score of the group of acupuncture combined with minimally invasive surgery or basic therapy was superior to the group of minimally invasive surgery or basic therapy(MD=2.41,95%CI[1.90,2.91],P<0.000 01). The GRADE system showed an extremely low level of evidence for the above outcome indicators. Adverse reactions were mentioned only in two literatures, with no adverse reactions reported. The available evidence showed that acupuncture combined with minimally invasive surgery or basic therapy had a certain efficacy in patients of HICH compared with minimally invasive surgery or basic therapy. However, due to the high risk of bias in the included studies, its true efficacy needs to be verified by more high-quality studies in the future.

Overview of systematic reviews/Meta-analysis of Xingnaojing Injection in treatment of intracerebral hemorrhage / 中国中药杂志

To overview of systematic reviews/Meta-analysis of Xingnaojing Injection(XNJ) in the treatment of intracerebral hemorrhage(ICH). The systematic reviews concerning XNJ in the treatment of ICH were retrieved from four Chinese databases, four English databases, Chinese Clinical Trial Registry and ClinicalTrail.gov, with the retrieval time set from their inception to September 2020. Following the independent screening and data extraction by two researchers, a measurement tool to assess systematic evaluation 2(AMSTAR 2) and grades of recommendation, assessment, development and evaluation(GRADE) system were used to evaluate the metho-dological, reporting and evidence qualities of the 10 included systematic reviews. The results showed that XNJ was superior to the wes-tern medicine or conventional treatment in improving the effective rate and National Institutes of Health stroke scale(NIHSS) score, Barthel index(BI), and Glasgow coma scale(GCS) score and Chinese stroke scale(CSS) score, and reducing the mortality and cerebral hematoma volume, without inducing obvious adverse reactions. In general, the methodological, reporting and evidence qualities of the 10 included systematic reviews were poor. The AMSTAR 2 scores showed that key items No. 2 and No. 16 failed to meet the stan-dard, resulting in poor methodological quality. There was only one outcome indicator graded by GRADE as intermediate quality, 43% indicators as low quality, 42% indicators as extremely low quality, and none as high quality. These available evidences have suggested that the methodological, reporting and evidence qualities of the systematic evaluation concerning XNJ for the treatment of ICH need to be improved. Most evidences support that XNJ was better than the western medicine or conventional treatment in the treatment of ICH, but the methodological quality and the reliability of outcome indicators in relevant systematic review were low. More high-quality studies are still required for further verification.

Systematic review and Meta-analysis of efficacy and safety of Toutongning Capsules in treatment of tension-type headache / 中国中药杂志

This study aims to systematically evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of Toutongning Capsules in the treatment of tension-type headache(TTH), so as to provide a corresponding basis for clinical treatment. Eight commonly used medical research databases and two clinical trial registration systems were retrieved with the time interval from the establishment of the database or system to November 2020. The randomized controlled trials of Toutongning Capsules in the treatment of TTH were screened out according to the pre-set criteria. The quality of the included papers was evaluated by the bias risk assessment tool in Cochrane Reviewers Handbook 6.1 and the data were statistically analyzed by RevMan v5.4 provided by Cochrane collaboration. A total of 13 studies were included and the quality of methodology was generally low. Meta-analysis showed that Toutongning Capsules assisted with western medicine therapy can effectively reduce the pain intensity(MD_(VAS)=-1.94,95%CI[-2.50,-1.38],P<0.000 01;MD_(NRS)=-0.83,95%CI[-0.86,-0.80],P<0.000 01), headache duration(SMD=-0.98,95%CI[-1.17,-0.79],P<0.000 01), headache frequency(MD=-1.01,95%CI[-1.16,-0.85],P<0.000 01), headache index(MD=-11.13,95%CI[-12.10,-10.16],P<0.000 01), anxiety and depression scale score(MD_(HAMA)=-4.02,95%CI[-6.58,-1.46],P=0.002;MD_(HAMD)=-2.67,95%CI[-4.04,-1.29],P=0.000 1), while Toutongning Capsules as monotherapy only reduced the headache score(MD=-2.24,95%CI[-2.97,-1.51],P<0.000 01). The available clinical studies demonstrate that Toutongning Capsules combined with western medicine in the treatment of TTH can improve the related outcome indicators, but the clinical safety and efficacy of Toutongning Capsules alone remain unclear. Due to the small number and low quality of the included studies, large-sample, multi-center, high-quality and strictly designed randomized controlled trials are still needed to verify the clinical efficacy in the future.

Systematic review and Meta-analysis of efficacy and safety of gastrodin in treatment of tension-type headache / 中国中药杂志

The efficacy of gastrodin as a Chinese herbal medicine extract in the treatment of tension-type headache has been confirmed. This paper systematically reviewed the efficacy and safety of gastrodin in the treatment of tension-type headache, aiming to provide a new choice for the treatment of this disease. In this study, four Chinese databases, four English databases and two trial registries were searched from the date of establishment to September 2020. The related randomized controlled trials(RCTs) were screened out according to the predetermined criteria. The bias risk assessment tool developed by Cochrane collaboration was used to evaluate the quality of the reports. RevMan 5.4.1 was used for Meta-analysis, and GRADE system for the evidence-based evaluation on the quality of outcome indicators. A total of 177 articles were retrieved and 8 articles were finally included for analysis, with a total sample size of 1 091 cases, which included 565 cases in the treatment group and 526 cases in the control group. The overall quality of included stu-dies was not high. The results of Meta-analysis are as follows:(1)In terms of headache frequency, gastrodin group was better than wes-tern medicine group(MD=-2.90, 95%CI[-3.76,-2.03], P<0.000 01).(2)In terms of number of abnormal blood vessels in TCD, gastrodin group was better than western medicine group(MD=-88.96, 95%CI[-102.36,-75.55], P<0.000 01).(3)In terms of effective rate, gastrodin group was better than western medicine group(RR=1.47, 95%CI[1.29, 1.68], P<0.000 01). The results of subgroup analysis are as follows:(1)Effective rate based on age, for the patients upper age limit 40-46 years old, gastro-din group was better than western medicine group(RR=1.69, 95%CI[1.50, 1.90], P<0.000 01); for the patients upper age limit 55-60 years old, gastrodin group was better than western medicine group(RR=1.27, 95%CI[1.16, 1.38], P<0.000 01).(2)Effective rate based on dosage form, both the gastrodin capsules and injection groups were better than western medicine group(RR_(capsules)=1.42, 95%CI[1.08, 1.88], P=0.01; RR_(injection)=1.50, 95%CI[1.26, 1.77], P<0.000 01). GRADE evaluation showed that the above outcomes had low quality of evidence. Only one article detailed the occurrence of adverse reactions and thus the present study cannot make a positive conclusion on the safety of gastrodin in the treatment of tension-type headache. The small number and low quality of the included reports affected the reliability of the results. In the future, more high-quality randomized controlled trails are needed to improve the evaluation on the efficacy and safety of gastrodin in the treatment of tension-type headache.

Situation analysis of outcome indicators of randomized controlled trials of traditional Chinese medicine in treatment of hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage in recent three years / 中国中药杂志

The study aims to analyze the outcome indicators of randomized controlled trial(RCT) of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) in the treatment of hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage(HICH) in recent three years, and thus provide suggestions for the future studies in this field. Four English databases, four Chinese databases and two online registration websites of clinical trials were searched. The RCTs published between January 2018 and September 2020 were screened. The risk of bias was assessed and outcome measures were classified. A total of 151 839 articles were retrieved, of which 44 RCTs were included for analysis after screening. The outcome measures of the included RCTs were classified into 7 categories, among which the symptoms/signs category showed the highest reporting rate. National Institute of Health stroke scale(72.73%) was the most frequently reported outcome indicator, while the vo-lume of intracerebral hemorrhage determined by computerized tomography(36.36%) was the most frequently reported lab test outcome. Most studies collect the outcomes at the end of treatment, while 9 studies reported long-term outcomes 3 months or more after onset. Compared with those of international clinical trials, the application of some of the outcomes was reasonable, focusing on patients' symptoms, quality of life and objective outcomes. However, there were still several problems: unclear primary and secondary outcome measures, insufficient attention to long-term prognosis, insufficient attention to social function, few TCM outcomes, lack of measurement blindness and the use of unreasonable composite outcomes. It is recommended that researchers should rationally design the outcome indicators of clinical trials and develop the core outcome set.

Outcome indicators in randomized controlled trials on traditional Chinese medicine intervention for tension-type headache in recent five years / 中国中药杂志

To evaluate the application of outcome indicators in randomized controlled trials(RCTs) concerning the treatment of tension-type headache(TTH) with traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) in recent five years, so as to provide a basis for the study of core outcome set(COS) for TCM intervention in TTH. The RCTs on TCM treatment of TTH in recent five years were systematically retrieved from CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, CBM, EMbase, PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, ClinicalTrials.gov and China Clinical Trial Registry. After literature screening, data extraction and evaluation of the risk of bias, the outcome indicators in the included RCTs were subjected to qualitative analysis. The preliminary search yielded 19 042 articles, and 10 983 were left after the elimination of duplication. Finally, 52 RCTs(48 in Chinese and 4 in English) were included for qualitative analysis. The outcome indicators of RCTs included in this study were classified into seven domains: TCM syndrome, symptom and sign, physical and chemical detection, quality of life, long-term prognosis, economic evaluation, and safety event. The findings demonstrated that headache characteristic index in the symptom and sign domain was the index with the highest reporting frequency and reporting rate. Seventeen RCTs used TCM syndrome score as the outcome indicator. Further analysis revealed that there existed such problems in research design as non-distinction between primary and secondary outcome indicators, great difference in the adopted measurement tools for outcome indicators, and the neglect of measurement time of outcome indicators. Moreover, the syndrome indicators reflecting TCM advantages, objective evaluation indicators, safety and health-economic indicators were lacking. These limitations have affected the quality and reliability of RCTs on TTH treatment with TCM. It is suggested that the efficacy and characteristics of TCM should be combined into current clinical research, and the COS in RCTs regarding TCM treatment of TTH should be established according to internationally recognized standard procedures.

Network Meta-analysis of oral or nasal feeding with Chinese patent medicine in treatment of hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage / 中国中药杂志

The effect of oral or nasal feeding with Chinese patent medicine on hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage was systematically evaluated by using the method of network Meta-analysis. Four Chinese databases(CNKI, VIP, Wanfang, CBM), three English databases(Medline, EMbase, Cochrane Library) and ClinicalTrials.gov were retrieved through computers. According to the inclusion criteria and exclusion criteria, randomized controlled trials(RCTs) of Chinese patent medicine combined with Western medicine in the treatment of hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage were screened out according to the inclusion criteria and exclusion criteria. The Cochrane bias risk assessment tool was used to evaluate the quality of the included studies, and Stata 16.0 software was used to analyze the outcome indicators. A total of 3 888 literatures were retrieved, and 30 studies involving 6 kinds of Chinese patent medicines were finally included. The total sample size was 2 758 cases, including 1 401 cases in the treatment group and 1 357 cases in the control group. According to the results of network Meta-analysis,(1)in terms of improving the degree of nerve function defect, the order of Chinese patent medicines was conventional Western medicine combined with Xiaoyukang Capsules>combined with Tongxinluo Capsules>combined with Naoxuekang Oral Liquid>combined with Naoxueshu Oral Liquid>combined with Angong Niuhuang Pills>conventional Western medicine;(2)in terms of reducing the amount of residual cerebral hematoma, the order of Chinese patent medicines was conventional Western medicine combined with Naoxueshu Oral Liquid>combined Xiaoyukang Capsules>combined Naoxuekang Oral Liquid>conventional Western medicine;(3)in terms of improving ability of daily living, the order of Chinese patent medicines was conventional Western medicine combined with Shenzhi Huoxue Capsules>combined with Angong Niuhuang Pills>combined with Naoxueshu Oral Liquid>conventional Western medicine;(4)in terms of improving total effective rate, the order of Chinese patent medicines was conventional Western medicine combined with Naoxueshu Oral Liquid>combined with Xiaoyukang Capsules>combined with Angong Niuhuang Pills=combined with Naoxuekang Oral Liquid>combined Tongxinluo Capsules>conventional Western medicine treatment. The results showed that in addition to conventional Western medicine therapy, the combined use with Chinese patent medicine can improve the clinical efficacy in the treatment of hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage. However, due to the differences in the number and quality of various Chinese patent medicines included in the studies, and the lack of direct comparison of Chinese patent medicines, the ranking results still need to be verified by multi center, large-sample-size randomized double-blind trials in the future, so as to provide more reliable evidence support for clinical drug use.

Systematic review and Meta-analysis on efficacy and safety of Naoxueshu Oral Liquid in treatment of hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage / 中国中药杂志

To systematically review the efficacy and safety of Naoxueshu Oral Liquid in treatment of hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage, four Chinese databases, four English databases, clinical trials registration center(ClinicalTrials.gov) and Chinese clinical trial registry were retrieved. The retrieval time was from the establishment of each database to September 9, 2020. According to the set criteria, the randomized controlled trial(RCT) of Naoxueshu Oral Liquid combined with conventional Western medicine was selected. The "Cochrane bias risk assessment" tool was used to evaluate the quality of the included studies. RevMan 5.4.1 was used to conduct Meta-analysis of the included studies and GRADE system was used to evaluate the evidence quality of the outcome indicators. Eleven studies were finally included, with a total sample size of 1 221 cases, 612 cases in the treatment group and 609 cases in the control group. Meta-analysis showed that Naoxueshu Oral Liquid combined with conventional Western medicine had no significant difference compare with conventional Western medicine in reducing National Institute of health stroke scale(NIHSS) after 2 weeks of treatment for hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage(MD=-1.59,95%CI[-3.46,0.29],P=0.10), but was superior to conventional Western medicine after 30 d of treatment(MD=-1.16,95%CI [-1.39,-0.94],P<0.000 01). Naoxueshu Oral Liquid combined with conventional Western medicine was superior to conventional Western medicine in improving Glasgow coma scale(MD=1.00,95%CI[0,2.00],P=0.05) and reducing the incidence of secondary brain insults(RR=0.38,95%CI[0.24,0.59],P<0.000 1), but there was no significant difference in increasing Barthel index(MD=1.00,95%CI[-0.30,2.30],P=0.13). In terms of effective rate, studies using Guideline for clinical trials of new patent Chinese medicines, NHISS or Glasgow outcome scale(GOS) had shown that Naoxueshu Oral Liquid combined with conventional Western medicine was superior to conventional Western medicine(RR_(Guideline for clinical trials of new patent Chinese medicines)=1.27,95%CI[1.10,1.46],P=0.001;RR_(NHISS)=1.26,95%CI[1.13,1.40],P<0.000 1;RR_(GOS)=1.54,95%CI[1.22,1.93],P=0.000 2). In reduction of hematoma volume, Naoxueshu Oral Liquid combined with conventional Western medicine was superior to conventional Western medicine after 2 and 4 weeks of treatment(MD_(2 week)=-2.31,95%CI[-3.12,-1.49],P<0.000 01;MD_(4 week)=-2.04,95%CI[-2.41,-1.68],P<0.000 01). GRADE system showed that the evidence level of the above outcome indicators was low and extremely low. In terms of adverse reactions, two of the included studies reported mild adverse reactions, and the rest of studies were not mentioned, so this study was not able to make a positive evaluation of the safety of Naoxueshu Oral Liquid. This study showed that compared with conventional Western medicine, combined Naoxueshu Oral Liquid may be better for hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage. However, due to the high bias risk in the included studies, more large-sample and high-quality RCTs are still needed in the future.

Overview of systematic reviews of Panax notoginseng saponins in treatment of acute cerebral infarction / 中国中药杂志

To overview the systematic reviews of Panax notoginseng saponins in the treatment of acute cerebral infarction. CNKI, CBM, Wanfang, VIP, PubMed, Cochrane Library and EMbase databases were retrieved to collect the systematic reviews of the efficacy of P. notoginseng saponins in the treatment of acute cerebral infarction. The retrieval time was from the time of database establishment to January 2021. After two researchers independently screened out the literature and extracted the data, AMSTAR-2 scale was used to evaluate the methodological quality of the included systematic reviews, GRADE system was used to grade the quality of evidences of the outcome indicators, and the efficacy evaluation was summarized. A total of 5 systematic reviews were included. AMSTAR-2 evaluation results showed that 3 items were relatively complete, while 4 items had a poor overall quality. P. notoginseng saponins combined with conventional Western medicine therapy was superior to single conventional therapy in the recovery of neurological function, enhancement of the total effective rate in clinic, and improvement of activities of daily living. GRADE evaluation results showed that the quality of evidence was from low quality to very low quality. In conclusion, in the treatment of acute cerebral infarction, P. notoginseng saponins can improve the clinical efficacy, with a good safety but a not high methodological quality and a low evidence quality. It is suggested that high-quality clinical studies shall be further carried out to provide evidence-based basis for the application of P. notoginseng saponins in the treatment of acute cerebral infarction.

Evidence of clinical randomized controlled trial study in treatment of acute cerebral infarction with traditional Chinese medicine in recent five years / 中国中药杂志

To systematically search and sort out the clinical randomized controlled trial(RCT) on the prevention and treatment of acute cerebral infarction with traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) by using the method of evidence map, and to understand the evidence distribution of related studies. CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, CBM, PubMed, EMbase, Cochrane Library and Web of Science were retrieved from January 2016 to September 2020, and literatures related to the prevention and treatment of acute cerebral infarction with traditional Chinese medicine were included. Text description combined with table and bubble chart were used to analyze the distribution characteristics of evidence. A total of 1 102 clinical articles in recent five years were retrieved. The annual trend of clinical study publication, study size, TCM therapy category and main scheme, and study literature quality were analyzed. We find that TCM treatment of acute cerebral infarction has become a hot topic of clinical research, the number of literature showed a trend of increased year by year, various means of intervention of TCM in the treatment of the advantages of increasingly highlight. Follow-up clinical research should highlight the characteristics of TCM: in the analysis of outcome indicators; increase the neuropsychological patients after stroke and cognitive ability, and the theory of combined treatment of TCM disease when thoughts; At the same time, the quality of clinical research needs to be improved. At present, there is still a lack of unified standards for the production of evidence map. This study is the first to explore the application of evidence map to summarize and display the clinical research status of TCM treatment of acute cerebral infarction, and combine it with the setting of priority areas of TCM clinical research, so as to provide a reference basis for determining the priority topic selection of TCM treatment optimization research.

Analysis of status quo of RCT outcome indexes in treatment of acute ischemic stroke with traditional Chinese medicine / 中国中药杂志

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the selection situation of outcome indexes in randomized controlled trials of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) in the treatment of acute ischemic stroke and to provide suggestions for future research. In this study, four Chinese databases and three English databases were searched from January 2017 to June 2019. The randomized controlled trials of traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of ischemic stroke were selected according to the pre-established selection criteria. Cochrane bias risk assessment tool was used to evaluate the quality of the included studies. A total of 20 651 related articles were searched, and 11 662 ones were left after eliminating the repetitions. Finally, 42 articles were included, including 36 articles in Chinese and 6 articles in English, 40 randomized controlled trials and 2 registration schemes of randomized controlled trials. The results showed that the outcome indexes of 42 randomized controlled trials were mainly divided into seven categories, that is clinical outcome index, blood biochemical index, mental state evaluation index, cerebral hemodynamics index, index of evaluating the degree of carotid artery stenosis, safety indicators and other indicators. The blood biochemical index was the one with highest frequency, followed by the clinical outcome index. TCM syndrome score was used as an indicator of curative outcome in 17 studies. After the analysis, it was found that there were many problems in selecting the outcome indexes for the randomized controlled trials of traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of cerebral apoplexy. For example, the end point index and hard index were rarely selected as the main outcome indicators, and the vast majority of them were intermediate alternative indexes; recognized curative effect could not be obtained; there were too many kinds of outcome indicators and excessive heterogeneity, hindering the promotion of superior treatment measures of traditional Chinese medicine in clinical practice. Therefore, we should draw lessons from the establishment method of the international core index outcome index set, construct the core index outcome index set of traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of ischemic stroke, and develop the outcome index set which accords with the curative effect characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine treatment mea-sures to solve the problems effectively.

Systematic Evaluation of Clinical Efficacy and Safety of Traditional Chinese Medicine for Post Stroke Cognitive Impairment / 中国实验方剂学杂志

Objective:To evaluate the efficacy and safety of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in the treatment of post stroke cognitive impairment (PSCI). Method:Seven databases, including CNKI, WanFang, VIP, CBM, PubMed, The Cochrane library and ClinicalTrials.gov, were electronically searched for relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of TCM in the treatment of PSCI. The Cochrane risk of bias assessment tool was used to evaluate the methodological quality of the included studies, descriptive analysis was carried out on the included studies, and the Meta quantitative analysis was carried out with RevMan 5.3 software. Result:A total of 16 RCTs were included with 1 296 participants, and they were assigned to the intervention group (n=649) and the control group (n=647). The results showed that TCM combined with western medicine group and TCM group were better than western medicine group in improving the scores of Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), Mini-mental State Examination (MMSE), Barthel Index (BI), Activity of Daily Living (ADL), Chinese stroke scale (CSS) and National Institutes of Health stroke scale (NIHSS) of PSCI patients, and no serious adverse events were observed. Conclusion:TCM has potential advantages in improving the cognitive function of patients with PSCI, and it also has certain efficacy in improving the daily living ability and neurological impairment symptoms, and no serious adverse events have been observed. Due to the low quality of methodology included in the studies, in order to provide reliable basis for clinical decision-making, high-quality of RCTs are still needed to study the efficacy and safety of TCM for PSCI.

Study on establishing a methodology of comprehensive clinical evaluation for Chinese patent medicine based on health technology assessment / 中国中药杂志

At present, most of Chinese patent medicines have problems, such as weak scientific basis, unclear clinical value evaluation, etc., which lead to the lack of sufficient evidence for the entry into the essential medicine list, medical insurance catalog and other important health resource allocation tools. This has a negative impact on the development of traditional Chinese medicine. It is urgent to establish a comprehensive evaluation methodology system of Chinese patent medicine in China. There are at least three reasons including producing evidence for clinical rational use scientifically, developing an objective and transparent selecting strategy, eventuating and highlighting its clinical value. The process and method of health technology assessment(HTA) can provide reference for the establishment of comprehensive evaluation method of Chinese patent medicine. However, HTA is rarely carried out in the field of traditional Chinese medicine. The latest domestic and international research showed that HTA combined with multi-criteria decision analysis(MCDA) can increase the transparency of decision-making and improve the quality of decision-making. The combined two formed the EVIDEM framework, which is conducive to drug selection and its clinical use. In this paper, the EVIDEM framework was introduced to establish the methodology framework of the comprehensive clinical evaluation system of Chinese patent medicine. A preliminary research idea has been put forward. In the future, we can establish a set of comprehensive clinical evaluation methods for Chinese patent medicine in cooperation with relevant national drug decision-making departments and management departments. It is believed that such cooperation could promote the full implementation of the re-evaluation for Chinese patent medicine.

Systematic review and Meta-analysis on efficacy and safety of Yangxue Qingnao Granules in treatment of migraine / 中国中药杂志

To evaluate the efficacy and safety of Yangxue Qingnao Granules alone or combined with calcium channel blocker in treatment of migraine. In this study, four Chinese databases(CNKI, VIP, WanFang, CBM), three English databases(Cochrane Library, EMbase, Medline) and clinical trials registration center(ClinicalTrials.gov) were retrieved. The retrieval time was from the establishment of each database to January 8, 2020. According to the set inclusion criteria and exclusion criteria,the randomized controlled trial(RCT) of Yangxue Qingnao Granules alone or combined with calcium channel blocker was selected. The "Cochrane bias risk assessment" tool was used to evaluate the quality of the included studies. RevMan 5.3 was used to conduct Meta-analysis of the included studies and grade system was used to evaluate the evidence quality of the outcome indicators. A total of 583 documents were retrieved and finally included in 23 studies, with a total sample size of 2 308 cases, 1 171 cases in the treatment group and 1 137 cases in the control group. The overall quality of the research included was not high. Meta-analysis showed that,(1)in terms of effective rate, Yangxue Qingnao Granules combined with calcium channel blocker was better than calcium channel blocker(RR=1.24, 95%CI[1.17, 1.32], P<0.000 01), and there was no significant difference between Yangxue Qingnao Granules and calcium channel blocker(RR=1.36, 95%CI[0.91, 2.03], P=0.14).(2)In terms of reducing headache frequency, when the unit of headache frequency was times per month, Yangxue Qingnao Granules combined with calcium channel blocker was better than calcium channel blocker(MD=-1.39, 95%CI[-1.83,-0.95], P<0.000 01), when the unit of headache frequency was times daily, Yangxue Qingnao Granules combined with calcium channel blocker was better than calcium channel blocker(MD=-2.08, 95%CI[-2.34,-1.82], P<0.000 01).(3)In terms of headache intensity, when headache intensity was scored by pain intensity, Yangxue Qingnao Granules combined with calcium channel blocker was better than calcium channel blocker(MD=-0.70, 95%CI[-0.81,-0.59], P<0.000 01), when headache intensity was scored by VAS score, Yangxue Qingnao Granules combined with calcium channel blocker was better than calcium channel blocker(MD=-1.59, 95%CI[-2.13,-1.06], P<0.000 01).(4)In terms of reducing headache duration, Yangxue Qingnao Granules combined with calcium channel blocker was better than calcium channel blocker(SMD=-3.13, 95%CI[-4.12,-2.15], P<0.000 01). GRADE system showed that the evidence level of the above outcome indicators was low and extremely low. Twelve cases of adverse reactions were reported, all of which were mild. The results showed that the combination of Yang-xue Qingnao Granules can improve the effective rate, reduce the headache frequency, the headache intensity and the headache duration, and had good safety and low incidence of adverse reactions compared with the single calcium channel blocker. However, there was no difference in the effective rate between Yangxue Qingnao Granules alone and calcium channel blocker. In view of the low quality of this study, which affects the reliability of the conclusion, it is necessary to use the conclusion of this study carefully, and more high-quality randomized controlled trials are needed to further verify in the future.

Systematic review and Meta-analysis on randomized controlled trial of efficacy and safety for acupuncture versus Flunarizine in treatment of migraine / 中国中药杂志

To systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of acupuncture versus Flunarizine hydrochloride in the treatment of migraine. Four Chinese databases(CNKI, VIP, WanFang, CBM), three English databases(Cochrane Library, EMbase, Medline) and ClinicalTrail.gov were systematically and comprehensively retrieved. The retrieval time was from the establishment of each database to January 8, 2020. Randomized controlled trial(RCT) for acupuncture versus Flunarizine in the treatment of migraine were screened out according to inclusion criteria and exclusion criteria. The included studies were evaluated with the Cochrane bias risk assessment tool. The included studies was conducted by RevMan 5.3, and the outcome indicators were evaluated for evidence quality and strength of recommendation by the GRADE system. A total of 1 033 literatures were retrieved, and 23 studies were finally included. Except for 4 multiarm tests, the total sample size was 1 548, including 785 in acupuncture group and 763 in Flunarizine group. The overall quality of the included studies was not high. Meta-analysis results showed that the acupuncture group was superior to the Flunarizine group in reduction of headache frequency(SMD=-1.00, 95%CI[-1.45,-0.54], P<0.000 1). In reduction of headache intensity, acupuncture group was superior to Flunarizine group(SMD=-1.05, 95%CI[-1.41,-0.68], P<0.000 01). In reduction of headache duration, acupuncture group was superior to Flunarizine group(SMD=-1.42, 95%CI[-1.83,-1.02], P<0.000 1). The acupuncture group was superior to Flunarizine group(MD=-0.17, 95%CI[-0.21,-0.13], P<0.000 01) in reduction of the painkillers taking frequency. The acupuncture group was superior to Flunarizine group(SMD=-0.94, 95%CI[-1.35,-0.52], P<0.000 1) in allevia-tion of paroxysmal symptoms, such as nausea and vomiting. The GRADE system showed that the evidence level of the above indicators was extremely low, and the strength of recommendation was low. As for the occurrence of adverse reactions, the adverse reactions reported in the acupuncture group included in the study were all mild adverse reactions, like drowsiness, subcutaneous bleeding, local pain, subcutaneous hematoma and dizziness needle. The available evidence showed that acupuncture has a better efficacy than Flunarizine hydrochloride in the treatment of migraine in adult patients. However, due to the high bias risk in the included studies, the conclusions of this study shall be adopted with caution, and more high-quality studies shall be carried out for verification in the future.

Network Meta-analysis of oral Chinese patent medicine in treatment of migraine / 中国中药杂志

To systemically assess the clinical efficacy of oral Chinese patent medicine for migraine by using network Meta-analysis. Four Chinese databases(CNKI, VIP, WanFang, CBM), three English databases(Medline, EMbase, Cochrane Library) and ClinicalTrials.gov were systematically and comprehensively retrieved from the establishment of each database to April 24, 2020. Rando-mized controlled trial(RCT) on oral Chinese patent medicine combined with Flunarizine for migraine were screened out according to inclusion criteria and exclusion criteria. Literature screening and data extraction were conducted independently by 2 researchers. The included studies were evaluated with the Cochrane bias risk assessment tool. Data analysis was conducted by using Stata 16.0 software. Finally, a total of 52 RCTs were included, involving 11 kinds of oral Chinese patent medicines. The results of the network Meta-analysis showed that in terms of headache frequency, the order of efficacy was: Flunarizine combined with Tongtian Oral Liquid>combined with Zhengtian Pills>combined with Toutongning Capsules>combined with Yangxue Qingnao Granules>combined with Tianshu Capsules>combined with Xuefu Zhuyu Capsules>combined with Danzhen Toutong Capsules>combined with Chuanxiong Qingnao Granules>combined with Songling Xuemaikang Capsules. In terms of headache intensity, the order of efficacy was: Flunarizine combined with Tongtian Oral Liquid>combined with Zhengtian Pills>combined with Danzhen Toutong Capsules>combined with Tianshu Capsules>combined with Toutongning Capsules>combined with Chuanxiong Qingnao Granules>combined with Yuntongding Capsules>combined with Yang-xue Qingnao Granules>combined with Danqi Soft Capsules. In terms of headache lasting time, the order of efficacy was: Flunarizine combined with Tongtian Oral Liquid>combined with Yangxue Qingnao Granules>combined with Toutongning Capsules>combined with Zhengtian Pills>combined with Danzhen Toutong Capsules>combined with Tianshu Capsules>combined with Xuefu Zhuyu Capsules>combined with Yuntongding Capsules>combined with Chuanxiong Qingnao Granules>combined with Songling Xuemaikang Capsules. The results showed that oral Chinese patent medicines combined with Flunarizine were effective in improving the clinical efficacy for migraine. Due to the differences in the number and quality of studies included in studies of different Chinese patent medicines, and the lack of direct comparison of Chinese patent medicines, the results of the above order of Chinese patent medicines need to be demonstrated in future multi-center, large-sample, and double-blind randomized trial.