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Meta-Analysis
. 2021 Nov;35(11):5992-6009.
doi: 10.1002/ptr.7209. Epub 2021 Jul 13.

Contribution of traditional Chinese medicine combined with conventional western medicine treatment for the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), current evidence with systematic review and meta-analysis

Fei Jiang  1   2 , Nana Xu  1   3 , Yanxi Zhou  4 , Jinxing Song  1 , Jinjuan Liu  1 , Hong Zhu  5 , Jihong Jiang  1 , Yonghong Xu  1 , Rongpeng Li  1
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Contribution of traditional Chinese medicine combined with conventional western medicine treatment for the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), current evidence with systematic review and meta-analysis

Fei Jiang et al. Phytother Res. 2021 Nov.

Abstract

This study provides current evidence for efficacy and safety of treating COVID-19 with combined traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and conventional western medicine (CWM). Six databases were searched from January 1 to December 31, 2020. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs), case-control studies (CCTs), and cohort studies on TCM or TCM combined with CWM treatment for COVID-19 were included. The quality of included RCTs was assessed by Cochrane risk of bias tool, and the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) was used to assess the quality of cohort studies and CCTs. Review Manager 5.4 software was used to perform meta-analysis. The quality of evidence was assessed using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach. A total of 35 studies (3,808 patients) composing 19 RCTs and 16 observational studies were included. The results of meta-analysis revealed that comparing with CWM alone, integrated TCM and CWM had significant improvement in total effective rate, improvement rate of chest CT, the rate of disease progression, as well as improvement of fever, fatigue and cough. The overall quality of evidence was very low to moderate. In conclusion, TCM combined with CWM was a potential treatment option for increasing clinical effective rate, improving the clinical symptoms, and preventing disease progression in COVID-19 patients. High-quality clinical trials are required in the further.

Keywords: COVID-19; integrative medicine; meta-analysis; systematic review; traditional Chinese medicine.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declared that there was no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this paper.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Flow diagram of study screening
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Risk of bias graph (left) and summary (right)
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Rate of disease progression of patients with COVID‐19 between TCM + CWM group and CWM group
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Negative conversion rate of nucleic acid of patients with COVID‐19 between TCM + CWM group and CWM group
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
Improvement rate of chest CT of patients with COVID‐19 between TCM + CWM group and CWM group
FIGURE 6
FIGURE 6
Total effective rate of patients with COVID‐19 between TCM + CWM group and CWM group
FIGURE 7
FIGURE 7
Incidence of adverse events of patients with COVID‐19 between TCM + CWM group and CWM group
FIGURE 8
FIGURE 8
Funnel plot of total effective rate (a), improvement rate of chest CT (b), rate of disease progression (c) and incidence of adverse events (d)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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