Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34032734›Full record

SynthesisMedicine2021

Efficacy and safety of Lianhuaqingwen for mild or moderate coronavirus disease 2019: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

Zheng Fan, Guiming Guo, Xiaoping Che, Ying Yang, Yang Liu, Luyang Li, Xinyu Chang, Lijuan Han, Xiaorong Cai, Huilin Tang

Abstract readComparative StudyMeta-AnalysisSystematic Review
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
8citing papers in PubMed, 3 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
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

8 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Herbal medicine for COVID-19: An overview of systematic reviews and meta-analysis.Phytomedicine : international journal of phytotherapy and phytopharmacology · 2022
    Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
  4. Trial
  5. Review
  6. Review
  7. Article
  8. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

10 authors.

Zheng FanDepartment of Clinical Pharmacy, Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Capital Medical University.ORCID 0000-0002-9849-2247
Guiming GuoDepartment of Clinical Pharmacy, Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Capital Medical University.
Xiaoping CheDepartment of Clinical Pharmacy, Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Capital Medical University.
Ying YangDepartment of Clinical Pharmacy, Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Capital Medical University.
Yang LiuDepartment of Clinical Pharmacy, Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Capital Medical University.
Luyang LiDepartment of Clinical Pharmacy, Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Capital Medical University.
Xinyu ChangDepartment of Clinical Pharmacy, Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Capital Medical University.
Lijuan HanDepartment of Clinical Pharmacy, Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Capital Medical University.
Xiaorong CaiDepartment of Clinical Pharmacy, Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Capital Medical University.
Huilin TangInstitute for Drug Evaluation, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing, PR China.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an emerging and rapidly evolving disease, with no recommended effective anti-coronavirus treatments. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has been widely used to treat COVID-19 in China, and the most used one is Lianhuaqingwen (LH). This study aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of LH combined with usual treatment vs usual treatment alone in treating mild or moderate COVID-19 by a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). METHODS AND ANALYSIS: : We systematically searched the Medline (OVID), Embase, the Cochrane Library, and 4 Chinese databases from inception to July 2020 to include the RCTs that evaluated the efficacy and safety of LH in combination with usual treatment vs usual treatment for mild or moderate COVID-19. A meta-analysis was performed to calculate the risk ratio (RR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for binary outcomes and mean difference (MD) for continuous outcomes.

results: A total of 5 RCTs with 824 individuals with mild or moderate COVID 19 were included. Compared with the usual treatment alone, LH in combination with usual treatment significantly improved the overall clinical efficacy (RR = 2.39, 95% CI 1.61-3.55), increased the rate of recovery of chest computed tomographic manifestations (RR = 1.80, 95% CI 1.08-3.01), reduced the rate of conversion to severe cases (RR = 0.47, 95% CI 0.29-0.74), shorten the duration of fever (MD = -1.00, 95% CI -1.17 to -0.84). Moreover, LH in combination with usual treatment did not increase the occurrence of the adverse event compared to usual treatment alone.

conclusion: Our meta-analysis of RCTs indicated that LH in combination with usual treatment may improve the clinical efficacy in patients with mild or moderate COVID-19 without increasing adverse events. However, given the limitations and poor quality of included trials in this study, further large-sample RCTs or high-quality real-world studies are needed to confirm our conclusions.

Indexed as

Antiviral AgentsChinaCombined Modality TherapyCOVID-19Drugs, Chinese HerbalHumansLungNutritional SupportOxygenRandomized Controlled Trials as TopicSARS-CoV-2Severity of Illness IndexTomography, X-Ray ComputedTreatment OutcomeAntiviral AgentsDrugs, Chinese HerballianhuaqingwenOxygen

Identifiers

PMID34032734
PMCPMC8154466

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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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.