Gualoupi (Pericarpium Trichosanthis) injection in combination with convention therapy for the treatment of angina pectoris: a Meta- analysis.

OBJECTIVE

To use a Meta-analysis to review the efficacy and safety of Gualoupi (Pericarpium Trichosanthis) injection (PTI) in the treatment of angina pectoris.

METHODS

We searched the available literature up to January 2015 using Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chinese Scientific Journal Database (VIP), the Wanfang database, PubMed and other English language databases to identify randomized controlled trials of PTI for the treatment of angina pectoris. Two reviewers independently retrieved and extracted the information. Software Review Manager 5.3 was used for statistics analysis.

RESULTS

Fourteen studies involving 1621 patients were identified. Compared with conventional therapy alone or conventional therapy plus other Traditional Chinese Injections (TCMIs), PTI plus conventional therapy significantly improved clinical efficacy [odds ratio (OR) = 3.56, 95% confidence interval (CI) (2.65, 4.77)] (based on 14 studies), electrocardiograph efficacy [OR = 3.20, 95% CI (2.26, 4.51)] (based on 7 studies), and efficacy for Traditional Chinese Medicine Syndromes [OR = 3.13, 95% CI (1.43, 6.89)] (based on 3 studies). Moreover, compared with conventional therapy alone or conventional therapy plus other TCMIs, PTI plus conventional therapy significantly decreased the levels of plasma viscosity [mean difference (MD) = － 0.47, 95% CI (－ 0.76, － 0.17)] (based on 3 studies), and plasma low-density lipoprotein [MD = －0.94, 95% CI (－1.57, －0.30)] (based on 3 studies). Eleven studies reported some mild adverse reactions, and no serious adverse drug reactions were observed.

CONCLUSION

PTI was found to be effective and safe for the treatment of angina pectoris. This study had certain limitations; thus, more rigorously designed, multi-center, randomized controlled trials in larger populations should be performed to support this observation.