ArticleWorld journal of clinical cases2021
Chinese medicine formulas for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: Overview of systematic reviews.
Article in World journal of clinical cases, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 6 citations in OpenAlex.
- Traditional Chinese medicine for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: an overview of systematic reviews with evidence mapping and metabolic outcome assessment.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Wendan decoction in the treatment of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2022Pooled it
- [A review of research progress in integrated traditional Chinese and Western Medicine for liver diseases].Zhonghua gan zang bing za zhi = Zhonghua ganzangbing zazhi = Chinese journal of hepatology · 2025Review
- Effect of intradermal needle therapy at combined acupoints on patients' gastrointestinal function following surgery for gastrointestinal tumors.World journal of clinical cases · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundNonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) affects more than one-quarter of the global population. Due to the lack of approved chemical agents, many patients seek treatment from traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formulas. A variety of systematic reviews have been published regarding the effectiveness and safety of TCM formulas for NAFLD.
aimTo critically appraise available systematic reviews and sort out the high-quality evidence on TCM formulas for the management of NAFLD.
methodsSeven databases were systematically searched from their inception to 28 February 2020. The search terms included "non-alcoholic fatty liver disease," "Chinese medicines," "systematic review," and their synonyms. Systematic reviews involving TCM formulas alone or in combination with conventional medications were included. The methodological quality and risk of bias of eligible systematic reviews were evaluated by using A Measure Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews 2 (AMSTAR 2) and Risk of Bias in Systematic Review (ROBIS). The quality of outcomes was assessed by the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) system.
resultsSeven systematic reviews were ultimately included. All systematic reviews were conducted based on randomized controlled trials and published in the last decade. According to the AMSTAR 2 tool, one systematic review was judged as having a moderate confidence level, whereas the other studies were rated as having a low or extremely low level of confidence. The ROBIS tool showed that the included systematic reviews all had a high risk of bias due to insufficient consideration of identified concerns. According to the GRADE system, only two outcomes were determined as high quality; namely, TCM formulas with the HuoXueHuaYu principle were better than conventional medications in ultrasound improvement, and TCM formulas were superior to antioxidants in alanine aminotransferase normalization. Other outcomes were downgraded to lower levels, mainly because of heterogeneity among studies, not meeting optimal information sample size, and inclusion of excessive numbers of small sample studies. Nevertheless, the evidence quality of extracted outcomes should be further downgraded when applying to clinical practice due to indirectness.
conclusionThe quality of available systematic reviews was not satisfactory. Researchers should avoid repeatedly conducting systematic reviews in this area and focus on designing rigorous randomized controlled trials to support TCM formula applications.
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