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. 2022 Apr;14(4):1232-1242.
doi: 10.21037/jtd-22-261.

The efficacy and safety of Wulingsan modified formulas for chronic heart failure patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Ziyun Li  1   2 , Lang Ren  3 , Renjun Gu  3 , Conghui Zhou  1   2 , Xu Tong  2 , Jingqing Hu  1   2
Affiliations

The efficacy and safety of Wulingsan modified formulas for chronic heart failure patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Ziyun Li et al. J Thorac Dis. 2022 Apr.

Abstract

Background: Chronic heart failure (CHF) is one of the most common cardiovascular diseases, which has caused huge economic burden worldwide. Wulingsan modified formulas have been historically used for CHF in China. However, the efficacy of its treatment for CHF has not been summarized by scholars and lacks of clinical evidence. This study aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of Wulingsan modified formulas for patients with CHF.

Methods: A comprehensive literature search was performed in the PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Medline (Ovid), China National Knowledge Infrastructure, WanFang, China Science and Technology Journal Database, and SinoMed databases from the date of their inception up to 1st November, 2021. Only randomized controlled trials evaluating Wulingsan modified formulas in patients with CHF were included. The primary outcome of this study was efficacy of Wulingsan modified formulas in the treatment of CHF, and the secondary outcomes included brain natriuretic peptide, left ventricular ejection fractions, and any other changes in the patients' condition. The risk ratio was applied to evaluate efficiency, and the weighted mean difference (WMD) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were used to merge the continuous variables. The I2 statistic was used to assess the heterogeneity. Sensitivity analysis was used to evaluate whether the single research affected the whole results. Data were extracted by two independent investigators. The Cochrane Risk of Bias tool (version 2.0) was utilized to evaluate the included studies, STATA (version 15.0) was applied for sensitivity analysis, and RevMan 5.3 software was used to conduct the systematic review and meta-analysis.

Results: Nineteen studies with a total of 1,631 were included in this meta-analysis. The meta-analysis results were as follows: efficiency, the risk ratio =1.21, 95% CI: 1.15, 1.27; brain natriuretic peptide, WMD =-269.14, 95% CI: -349.25, -189.04; and left ventricular ejection fractions, WMD =8.80, 95% CI: 5.93, 11.68. All of these findings were statistically significant. No statistically significant adverse events were reported in the included articles.

Discussion: Wulingsan modified formulas are a reasonable and relatively safe adjuvant therapy for the treatment of CHF.

Keywords: Chronic heart failure; Wulingsan modified formulas; meta-analysis.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at https://jtd.amegroups.com/article/view/10.21037/jtd-22-261/coif). The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Study selection flow chart.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Quality assessment of the included studies.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Comparison of efficiency between the experimental and control groups. (A) Forest plot of efficiency; (B) Funnel plot of efficiency. CI, confidence interval; RR, risk ratio; SE, standard error.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Comparison of BNP between the experimental and control groups. (A) Forest plot of BNP; (B) sensitivity analysis of BNP. SD, standard; CI, confidence interval; BNP, brain natriuretic peptide.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Comparison of left ventricular ejection fractions (LVEF) between the experimental and control groups. (A) Forest plot of LVEF; (B) sensitivity analysis of LVEF. SD, standard; CI, confidence interval.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Forest plot of adverse events. CI, confidence interval.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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