Objective To evaluate the quality of diagnostic studies on detecting anti-cyclic citrullonated peptide antibody to diagnose rheumatoid arthritis. Methods We searched PubMed, EMbase, The Cochrane Library, and CBM to collect studies on using anti-cyclic citrullonated peptide antibody to diagnose rheumatoid arthritis. QUADAS items were used to evaluate the quality of included studies. Results A total of 195 studies were included. Sixty-nine were English studies and 126 were Chinese studies. All studies had good descriptions of the spectrum of patients and little potential for partial verification bias, differential verification bias, and incorporation bias. However, most studies were prone to disease progression bias, review bias, and clinical review bias. One study did not explain the intermediate test results, and another did not report part of the test results. The overall quality of English studies was better than that of Chinese studies. Conclusion The potential bias of the included studies mainly resulted from the absence of blinding when interpreting the test results. The reporting quality of the included studies was poor.
Objective To assess the effectiveness and safety of Weifuchun for chronic atrophic gastritis. Methods Trials were located through electronic searches of The Cochrane Library (Issue 3, 2007), EMbase (1974 to June 2007), PubMed (1966 to June 2007), CBM (1978 to June 2007), CNKI (1994 to June 2007) and VIP (1989 to June 2007). Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and quasi-RCTs of Weifuchun for chronic atrophic gastritis were included. A critical quality assessment and Meta-analysis were performed for the included studies. RevMan 4.2.2 was used for statistical analysis. Results A total of 8 trials involving 816 patients were included. Meta-analysis showed that compared with the control group, Weifuchun for the CAG treatment group had superiority in many aspects such as effective rate according to Gastroscopy (RR 1.54 and 95%CI 1.31 to 1.81), effective rate according to Patho-check (RR 1.99 and 95%CI 1.54 to 2.58), adverse events, remission rate based on clinical symptoms (RR 1.47 and 95%CI 1.30 to 156), remission rate based on a single symptom, curative effect with IM/ATP, HP darkening rate (RR 1.26 and 95%CI 1.02 to 1.56), situation of hemoglobin change and so on. No RCTs were found to describe the safety of Weifuchun for CAG. Conclusion Because of low quality and small samples, there is no enough evidence on Weifuchun for chronic atrophic gastritis. More largescale multi-center randomized trials are needed to investigate the role of Weifuchun for chronic atrophic gastritis.
Objective To assess the efficiency of Kansui root in the treatment of patients with severe acute pancreatitis. Methods Trials were identified by searching CNKI, VIP, CBM, PubMed, EMbase, and The Cochrane Library. Randomized controlled trials ( RCTs) and quasi-randomized controlled trials (quasi-RCT) were included. Two reviewers assessed the quality of each study and extracted data independently. Statistical analysis was performed by using RevMan 4.2.7. Results Finally, four trials involving 240 patients were included. All included trials were quasi-RCT. Meta-analysis showed that the Kansui group had the tendency of reducing early deaths [RR=0.45, 95%CI(0.23, 0.89)], shortening the course of treatment, reducing the incidence of hyperamylasemia, and reducing the mean hospitalization stay. Moreover, the duration of abdominal pain and distension were shortened, and conversion to operation rate and incidence of complications of SAP were reduced significantly compared with the control group. Conclusion There was not enough evidence to support the Kansui root’s effectiveness present since the included trials are of poor quality. Therefore, large-scale high-quality RCTs are needed.