Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32001200›Full record

ArticleJournal of integrative medicine2020

Controversial conclusions from two randomized controlled trials for acupuncture's effects on polycystic ovary syndrome or in vitro fertilization support.

Sherman Gu, Arthur Yin Fan

Abstract readComment
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of integrative medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
1.2field-weighted citation impact, top 19% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed, 5 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Review
  2. Article
  3. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Sherman GuFederation of Chinese Medicine & Acupuncture Societies of Australia Ltd (FCMA), Melbourne, Victoria 3150, Australia; Knox Chinese Healing & Myotherapy, Wantirna South, Victoria 3152, Australia. Electronic address: shermangu@yahoo.com.
Arthur Yin FanAmerican TCM Association, Vienna, VA 22182, USA; McLean Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, PLC, Vienna, VA 22182, USA.
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Two reports of trials investigating the potential effect of acupuncture in increasing live birth rate (LBR) in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) or those undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) were published by Journal of American Medical Association in 2017 and 2018 respectively. The trial investigators did not recommend acupuncture for the women with PCOS or IVF based on their findings. This paper raises the concern that the findings that acupuncture did not increase LBR for women with PCOS or undergoing IVF may be the result of methodological flaws in the studies and unintended bias such as use of an invalid control intervention and underestimation of the true acupuncture effect. Therefore, their findings may not be a valid reflection of acupuncture's effect in improving LBR in women with these clinical conditions.

Indexed as

Acupuncture TherapyPolycystic Ovary SyndromeClomipheneFemaleFertilization in VitroHumansRandomized Controlled Trials as TopicClomipheneAcupunctureFertilization in vitroPolycystic ovary syndromeRandomized controlled trialTraditional Chinese medicine

Identifiers

PMID32001200
OpenAlexW3001112921

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.