ReviewCardiovascular therapeutics2023
Efficacy of Acupuncture in the Treatment of Essential Hypertension: An Overview of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses.
Review in Cardiovascular therapeutics, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled 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.
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
8 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 12 citations in OpenAlex.
- Acupuncture-based interventions for blood pressure control and cardiovascular risk-related outcomes in adults with hypertension: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Efficacy and safety of tai chi exercise on bone health: An umbrella review.Osteoporosis international : a journal established as result of cooperation between the European Foundation for Osteoporosis and the National Osteoporosis Foundation of the USA · 2023Pooled it
- Effects of Acupuncture on Arterial Hypertension and Endothelial Dysfunction: The AHEaD Trial.Arquivos brasileiros de cardiologia · 2026Trial
- A Clinical Study on the Efficacy of Acupuncture Treatment in Essential Hypertension: Protocol for Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR research protocols · 2025Article
- Acupuncture for Essential Hypertension and Endothelial Dysfunction: A Randomized Clinical Trial.Arquivos brasileiros de cardiologia · 2025Article
- Electroacupuncture treatment can improve cognitive impairment in spontaneously hypertensive rats: a preliminary DTI study.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2025Article
- Efficacy and safety of acupuncture treatment for post-stroke depression: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2024Article
- Traditional Chinese medicine for cardiovascular disease: efficacy and safety.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Acupuncture is widely used in the clinical treatment of essential hypertension (EH). This overview is aimed at summarizing current systematic reviews of acupuncture for EH and assessing the methodological bias and quality of evidence. Methods: Two researchers searched and extracted 7 databases for systematic reviews (SRs)/meta-analyses (MAs) and independently assessed the methodological quality, risk of bias, reporting quality, and quality of evidence of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) included in the SRs/MAs. Tools used included the measurement tool to assess systematic reviews 2 (AMSTAR-2), the risk of bias in systematic (ROBIS) scale, the checklist of preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA), and the grading of recommendations assessment, development, and evaluation (GRADE) system. Results: This overview included 14 SRs/MAs that use quantitative calculations to comprehensively assess the various effects of acupuncture in essential hypertension interventions. The methodological quality, reporting quality, risk of bias, and quality of evidence for outcome measures of SRs/MAs were all unsatisfactory. According to the results of the AMSTAR-2 assessment, all SRs/MAs were of low or very low quality. According to the results of the ROBIS evaluation, a few SRs/MAs were assessed as low risk of bias. According to the results of the PRISMA checklist assessment, SRs/MAs that were not fully reported on the checklist accounted for the majority. According to the GRADE system, 86 outcomes were assessed under different interventions in SRs/MAs, and 2 were rated as moderate-quality evidence, 23 as low-quality evidence, and 61 as very low-quality evidence. Limitations of the included SRs/MAs included the lack of necessary items, such as not being registered in the protocol, not providing a list of excluded studies, and not analyzing and addressing the risk of bias. Conclusion: Currently, acupuncture may be an effective and safe treatment for EH, but the quality of evidence is low, and caution should be exercised when applying this evidence in clinical practice.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.