The clinical value of Huangqi injection in the treatment of leucopenia: a meta-analysis of clinical controlled trials

Changsong Zhang; Changtai Zhu; Yang Ling; Xifa Zhou; Chunlei Dong; Judong Luo; Yongping Liu

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0083123

The clinical value of Huangqi injection in the treatment of leucopenia: a meta-analysis of clinical controlled trials

PLoS One. 2013 Dec 12;8(12):e83123. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0083123. eCollection 2013.

Authors

Changsong Zhang¹, Changtai Zhu², Yang Ling¹, Xifa Zhou³, Chunlei Dong⁴, Judong Luo³, Yongping Liu¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Oncology, Changzhou Tumor Hospital Soochow University, Changzhou, China.
² Department of Oncology, Changzhou Tumor Hospital Soochow University, Changzhou, China ; Department of Laboratory Medicine, Changzhou Tumor Hospital Soochow University, Changzhou, China.
³ Department of Radiation Oncology, Changzhou Tumor Hospital Soochow University, Changzhou, China.
⁴ Department of Laboratory Medicine, Changzhou Tumor Hospital Soochow University, Changzhou, China.

Abstract

Background: Huangqi injection is derived from Astragalus membranaceus root. In China, recent reports of Huangqi injection for the treatment of leucopenia have emerged. However, a systematic review of these reports has not been performed. Thus, we conducted a meta-analysis of clinical controlled trials to assess the clinical value of Huangqi injection in the treatment of leucopenia.

Methods: We searched the Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), Wanfang Database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chinese Scientific Journals Full-text Database (VIP), as well as PubMed and EMBASE to collect the data about trials of Huangqi injection for treating leucopenia. A meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.2 software.

Results: A total of 13 studies involving 841 patients were included in this study. The overall study quality was lower according to the Jadad scale. The meta-analysis showed that experimentally treated patients experienced greater therapeutic efficacy and lower white blood cell counts than control groups treated with Western medicine (P < 0.05). No publication bias was evident, according to Egger's test.

Conclusions: The validity of this meta-analysis was limited by the overall poor quality of the included studies. Huangqi injection may have potential clinical value in the treatment of leucopenia, but confirmation with rigorously well-designed multi-center trials is needed.

Publication types

Meta-Analysis
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review
Systematic Review

MeSH terms

Clinical Trials as Topic
Drugs, Chinese Herbal / therapeutic use*
Female
Humans
Leukocyte Count
Leukopenia / blood
Leukopenia / drug therapy*
Male
PubMed

Substances

Drugs, Chinese Herbal

Grants and funding

This project was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (81071799, 81372212), the Science and Technology Bureau of Changzhou Municipality (CJ2012202), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu (BK2011251), Jiangsu Provincial Special Program of Medical Science (BL2013012), the Health Talents Project for Jiangsu (LJ201157; RC2011038; BRA2011038), and the “831” Health Talents Project of Changzho Municipality. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.