ObjectivesTo systematically review the safety of traditional Chinese medicine injection based on clinical centralized monitoring studies that have been carried out and listed so far, to understand basic situation of adverse reactions and explore the risk factors of traditional Chinese medicine injections and to provide evidence for clinical rational use of drugs and optimizing centralized monitoring methods. MethodsCFDA, CNKI, VIP, WanFang Data, Sinomed, PubMed and The Cochrane Library databases were electronically searched to collect studies on safety monitoring of listed traditional Chinese medicine injections from inception to February, 2018. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias of included studies. Meta-analysis was then performed by using Excel software. ResultsA total of 14 studies involving 14 varieties of injections, 296 200 cases were included. The highest incidence rate of adverse reactions was found in the XueBiJing injection (2.54%). The related factors of ADR extraction were age, sex, drug combined usage, time from administration, allergic history, administration days, indication, dose and distribution of the tube. ConclusionsThe safety of traditional Chinese medicine injection is generally high. Middle and old age is an important factor in the occurrence of ADR. The incidence of ADR is relatively high in the first 6 days of drug use, and the incidence of ADR is more likely to be caused by irrational use of drugs in clinic, and the history of allergy may be related to the occurrence of ADR. Due to limited quality and quantity of the included studies, more high quality studies are required to verify above conclusion.
This paper introduces the process of design and implementation on the clinical evidence database of acupuncture (ACU-CED), including establishing expert groups on the basis of demands to formulate top-design, project implementation plans and standard, comprehensively searching publications of clinical randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of acupuncture and moxibustion, conducting strictly data extraction and evaluation, and eventually achieve automatic utilization of clinical evidence. ACU-CED will become the first structural data platform with the function of searching-screening-result, analysis-data, and statistics-evidence extraction, which fills in gapes in database of clinical evidence sources, increases efficiency of evidence transformation, and reduces waste of resources. It will also achieve auto-completion of systematic review/meta-analysis as well as visualization of clinical evidence, so as to provide evidence for clinical decision, guidelines and disease spectrum of acupuncture therapy.
Objective To explore the change of particles of Shuanghuanglian Injection (SHLI) admixed with different infusion solutions, and provide a reference for selecting rational menstruum. Methods A comprehensive literature search was executed to collect all the studies on the compatibility of SHLI with different infusion solutions. The reporting quality of the included studies was assessed; particles-related data were extracted and analyzed systematically. Results A total of 338 studies were identified, and 24 studies were included after screening. The quality of the included studies were poor and had heterogeneous outcomes. Generally, the particles of mixture increased dramatically, and there were significant differences among different pharmaceuticals, drug batches and infusion solutions. The pH of solvent had a greater impact on the particles, and the concentration and storage time of prepared liquor were other important factors. The particles of SHLI admixed with Normal Saline were less than 5%, 10% glucose injection and other solvents. Conclusion The particles of SHLI admixed with Normal Saline are the fewest, and commonly can be the preferred solvent. Factors on rational drug use are worthy of further studies; and more attention is needed for the scientificalness of study design.
The Core Outcome Set-STAndards for Reporting (COS-STAR) is a latest guide tool made by Core Outcome Measures in Effectiveness Trials (COMET) group. It can enhance the transparency and completeness of Core Outcome Set (COS) report. This paper introduces the generation process, report items and application of COS-STAR to provide reference for domestic similar researches.
Objective To evaluate the quality of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of traditional Chinese medicine published inChinese Journal of Integrated Traditional and Western Medicine, and to analyze changes. Methods We searched CNKI to collect RCTs published inChinese Journal of Integrated Traditional and Western Medicine (CJITWM) in 2014. Reporting quality of RCTs was evaluated by using CONSORT 2010 checklist, the methodological quality and ethics requirements were also analyzed. The changes of quality was also analyzed by comparing with those of 2004. Results A total of 80 RCTs were included. The top three interventions were Chinese patent medicine, decoction, acupuncture. Items with high reporting rate (>80%) included abstract, participants, randomization sequences and informed consent. Items with reporting rate of 50% to 80% including introduction, interventions, harms and funding, and others were all less than 50%. Among them, the reporting quality of title, trial design, outcomes, sample size, type of randomization, allocation concealment, blinding, numbers analyzed, outcomes and estimation, generalizability, interpretation, registration and protocol was less than 10%. Compared with those of 2004, the quality of reporting, methodology, and ethics has all increased. Significant progress was made in items of structured summary, background and objectives, collecting participants, adverse reactions, quality control standards of TCM interventions, diagnostic evaluation criteria of TCM, follow-up, funding, ethical approval and informed consent. But small progress was made in randomization, allocation concealment and implementation, sample size, blinding and ITT. There has been no participant flow. Conclusion The quality of reporting, methodology, and ethics of RCTs published inChinese Journal of Integrated Traditional and Western Medicine have made some progress, however, trial design, outcomes selection, estimation of sample size, randomization, blinding, registration and participant flow are still needed to be further improved.
The issue of waste in medical research has been widely concerned in recent years. Research waste is also significant in the field of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). This study summarized the causes of research waste in TCM and provided suggestions to researchers and administrators for reducing research waste and promoting rational use of medical research resources.
Inconsistency, impracticability and non-standardization of the selection, measurement and reporting of outcomes are three primary existing issues in clinical trials. These problems pose a threat to huge research waste when the results of similar studies are not able to be combined or compared. The key for resolution will be to standardize outcomes in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) clinical trials and to establish a core outcome set (COS), which is a set of outcomes to be reported as a minimum in all TCM clinical trials of similar healthcare system and syndromes. The first step in the development of COS is to collect all existing outcomes, that is, to build a pool of outcomes for clinical trials of TCM. A pool of outcome is the basis of developing COS, which is important to follow strict and scientific methodology. This paper aims to construct an outcome pool from published literature, clinical trial registration protocols, and clinicians, and patients questionnaires were used to form a list of outcomes. In addition, the influencing factors of constructing an outcome pool and considerations for each problem are summarized in order to provide guidance and reference for the development of COS in clinical trials for TCM.
Objective Shuanghuanglian injection (SHLI) is a typical Chinese medicine injection which has been used for more than 20 years. This study aims to investigate the compatibility of SHLI with western intravenous agents. Methods An extensive literature search was executed to identify all experimental tests and clinical reports on the topics. Data on the types of infusion solutions and western medical injections, usage and dosage, outcome measures for physical and chemical properties, and changes of drug effect were searched for. The included data was analyzed and described by the category of included western drugs. Compatibility was tested through integrating the evaluations of physical properties, chemical composition, drug metabolism, and safety. Results Sixty articles (38 experimental tests and 22 clinical reports) were included after screening. Fifty–three western medical injections were identified from all the included articles. Most of the research was about the compatibility of SHLI with different types of antibiotics, including β-lactam, aminoglycoside, and quinolone etc. Thirty-one western medical injections were not recommended to be combined with SHLI. The quality of the experimental test design was low because of unbalanced evaluation indicators: more attention to physical changes than drug metabolism, effect, and safety. Conclusions A broad incompatibility exists in the combination of SHLI with western medical injections. Some results are still uncertain, but the combinations should still be avoided until researched clearly. The compatibility and interaction of Chinese herbal injections and western medicines is still a weak area. The pharmaceutical sector should strengthen post-market research to update evidence and improve its distribution.
To describe the construction and application of clinical evidence database of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM-CED) so as to provide evidence for TCM research. The construction process primarily includes: expert team building, TCM-CED function module design, evidence collection and quality control. The applications of TCM-CED primarily include the following aspects: automatic generation of systematic review/meta-analysis in TCM, automatic generation of evidence reports on dominant diseases of TCM, automatic generation of evidence index of Chinese patent medicine, optimizing the selection of outcomes in TCM research, tracking methodological and reporting quality of TCM research, and promoting international dissemination of TCM evidence. With the rapid development of information technology and artificial intelligence, TCM-CED will be combined with artificial intelligence to achieve the construction of all-dimensional TCM evidence chain and the automation of the whole process.