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Article: Effectiveness of Chinese herbal medicine in treating liver fibrosis: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

TitleEffectiveness of Chinese herbal medicine in treating liver fibrosis: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
Authors
Issue Date2012
PublisherBioMed Central Ltd. The Journal's web site is located at http://www.cmjournal.org/home
Citation
Chinese Medicine, 2012, v. 7 n. 1, article no. 5 How to Cite?
AbstractBackground: The studies on the effectiveness of Chinese herbal medicines (CHM) in treating liver fibrosis (LF) were not consistent. This study aims to systematically review the effectiveness of CHM on treating LF patients.Methods: Databases including MEDLINE, AMED, EMBASE, The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, TCMOnline, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, and Chinese Medical Current Contents were searched up to March 2011. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving LF patients receiving CHM, Western medicine, combined CHM and Western medicine compared with placebo, Western medicine or no intervention were included. LF markers including serum hyaluronic acid (HA), laminin (LN), procollagen type III (PC-III), type IV collagen (IV-C), matrix metalloproteinase (MMP), and tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinase (TIMP) were measured as primary outcomes. Liver biochemistry, including alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartarte aminotransferase (AST), and improvement of related clinical symptoms were measured as secondary outcomes. Risk of bias of allocation sequence, allocation concealment, blinding, incomplete outcome data, selective outcome reporting, and other biases were assessed.Results: Twenty-three RCTs with 2123 participants were analyzed in subgroups of types of comparison and study quality. Fifteen studies were graded as good quality. CHM alone and combined with Western medicine showed significant improvements in HA, LN, PC-III and IV-C compared with Western medicine alone. However, there were no significant differences observed between CHM and placebo treatments.Conclusion: The current inconclusive results in determining the effectiveness of CHM treatment on LF, due to the poor methodological quality and high heterogeneity of the studies, suggests that large RCTs using standardized Chinese medicine syndrome diagnosis and CHM formulae with longer follow-up are required for further evaluation. © 2012 Cheung et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
Persistent Identifierhttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/163460
ISSN
2023 Impact Factor: 5.3
2023 SCImago Journal Rankings: 0.877
ISI Accession Number ID
References

 

DC FieldValueLanguage
dc.contributor.authorCheung, Fen_HK
dc.contributor.authorFeng, Yen_HK
dc.contributor.authorWang, Nen_HK
dc.contributor.authorYuen, MFen_HK
dc.contributor.authorTong, Yen_HK
dc.contributor.authorWong, VTen_HK
dc.date.accessioned2012-09-05T05:31:40Z-
dc.date.available2012-09-05T05:31:40Z-
dc.date.issued2012en_HK
dc.identifier.citationChinese Medicine, 2012, v. 7 n. 1, article no. 5en_HK
dc.identifier.issn1749-8546en_HK
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/163460-
dc.description.abstractBackground: The studies on the effectiveness of Chinese herbal medicines (CHM) in treating liver fibrosis (LF) were not consistent. This study aims to systematically review the effectiveness of CHM on treating LF patients.Methods: Databases including MEDLINE, AMED, EMBASE, The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, TCMOnline, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, and Chinese Medical Current Contents were searched up to March 2011. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving LF patients receiving CHM, Western medicine, combined CHM and Western medicine compared with placebo, Western medicine or no intervention were included. LF markers including serum hyaluronic acid (HA), laminin (LN), procollagen type III (PC-III), type IV collagen (IV-C), matrix metalloproteinase (MMP), and tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinase (TIMP) were measured as primary outcomes. Liver biochemistry, including alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartarte aminotransferase (AST), and improvement of related clinical symptoms were measured as secondary outcomes. Risk of bias of allocation sequence, allocation concealment, blinding, incomplete outcome data, selective outcome reporting, and other biases were assessed.Results: Twenty-three RCTs with 2123 participants were analyzed in subgroups of types of comparison and study quality. Fifteen studies were graded as good quality. CHM alone and combined with Western medicine showed significant improvements in HA, LN, PC-III and IV-C compared with Western medicine alone. However, there were no significant differences observed between CHM and placebo treatments.Conclusion: The current inconclusive results in determining the effectiveness of CHM treatment on LF, due to the poor methodological quality and high heterogeneity of the studies, suggests that large RCTs using standardized Chinese medicine syndrome diagnosis and CHM formulae with longer follow-up are required for further evaluation. © 2012 Cheung et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.en_HK
dc.languageengen_US
dc.publisherBioMed Central Ltd. The Journal's web site is located at http://www.cmjournal.org/homeen_HK
dc.relation.ispartofChinese Medicineen_HK
dc.rightsThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.-
dc.titleEffectiveness of Chinese herbal medicine in treating liver fibrosis: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trialsen_HK
dc.typeArticleen_HK
dc.identifier.emailFeng, Y: yfeng@hku.hken_HK
dc.identifier.emailYuen, MF: mfyuen@hku.hken_HK
dc.identifier.emailTong, Y: tongyao@hku.hken_HK
dc.identifier.authorityFeng, Y=rp00466en_HK
dc.identifier.authorityYuen, MF=rp00479en_HK
dc.identifier.authorityTong, Y=rp00509en_HK
dc.description.naturepublished_or_final_versionen_US
dc.identifier.doi10.1186/1749-8546-7-5en_HK
dc.identifier.pmid22376935-
dc.identifier.scopuseid_2-s2.0-84857467292en_HK
dc.identifier.hkuros208637-
dc.relation.referenceshttp://www.scopus.com/mlt/select.url?eid=2-s2.0-84857467292&selection=ref&src=s&origin=recordpageen_HK
dc.identifier.volume7en_HK
dc.identifier.issue1-
dc.identifier.spagearticle no. 5-
dc.identifier.epagearticle no. 5-
dc.identifier.isiWOS:000320459300001-
dc.publisher.placeUnited Kingdomen_HK
dc.identifier.scopusauthoridCheung, F=55026256700en_HK
dc.identifier.scopusauthoridFeng, Y=24467969600en_HK
dc.identifier.scopusauthoridWang, N=35072317700en_HK
dc.identifier.scopusauthoridYuen, MF=7102031955en_HK
dc.identifier.scopusauthoridTong, Y=9045384000en_HK
dc.identifier.scopusauthoridWong, VT=36549879800en_HK
dc.identifier.issnl1749-8546-

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