Medicine
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Functional constipation (FC) is a prevalent clinical disease that affects a considerable proportion of the population of all ages. Persistent FC significantly reduces quality of life and influences physical and emotional well-being, as well as consumes many substantial healthcare resources. Acupuncture originates from Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), and emerging evidence of several randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published suggest that acupuncture has positive effects for FC. Since 2019, several new results of high quality RCTs about acupuncture treatment for FC have been published. Thus a systematic review will be designed to appraise the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for improvement of FC in patients based on high quality RCTs. ⋯ This systematic review and meta-analysis will provide evidence to determine whether acupuncture treatment is an effective and safe therapy for the prevention and treatment of FC compared with medication treatment.
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Catgut implantation at acupoint (CIAA) is increasing used in allergic rhinitis therapy, and many studies have published that it is effective in the treatment of allergic rhinitis. However, it is controversy if CIAA can provide an evidence-based clinical benefit in the allergic rhinitis population. ⋯ This study will explore whether or not CIAA can be used as one of the nondrug therapies to prevent or treat allergic rhinitis.PROSPERO registration number: CRD42018095074 (https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/#recordDetails).
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Meta Analysis
Platelet-rich plasma vs corticosteroids for elbow epicondylitis: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
The aim of this meta-analysis was to compare the effectiveness of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) vs corticosteroids for treatment of patients with lateral elbow epicondylitis. ⋯ Local corticosteroid injections demonstrated favorable outcomes compared with those of local PRP treatments for lateral elbow epicondylitis during the short-term follow-up period (4 weeks and 8 weeks post-treatment). Otherwise, at the long-term follow-up (24 weeks post-treatment), PRP injections had improved pain and function more effectively than corticosteroid injections.
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Meta Analysis
Erenumab safety and efficacy in migraine: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials.
Erenumab is a new medicine recently approved in the United States of America for the preventive treatment of migraine among adults. We aimed to conduct a meta-analysis and evaluation of the efficacy and safety of erenumab among patients with migraine. ⋯ Among patients with migraine, both 70 and 140 mg of erenumab were associated with reduced Migraine-specific medication days, Migraine-specific medication days from baseline, and an increased rate of a 50% reduction, in the absence of an increased risk of any serious adverse effect.
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Meta Analysis
Moxibustion therapy for treating patients with primary osteoporosis: A systematic review and meta-analysis protocol.
Primary osteoporosis (POP) is a common disease among elderly, which increase the risk of fracture and impact to the quality of life. As a Chinese traditional therapy, moxibustion has been commonly applied in treating chronic musculoskeletal diseases in China. Many trails have shown that moxibustion therapy is effective in treating primary osteoporosis. The protocol aims to present the methods used to access the effectiveness and safety of moxibustion therapy for patients with primary osteoporosis. ⋯ The following databases will be searched from their inception: the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trails(CENTRAL), Pubmed, EMBASE, China National Knowledge Infrastructure(CNKI), Chinese Biomedical Literature Database(CBM), Chinese Scientific Journal Database (VIP database), and Wan-Fang Database. Clinical randomized controlled trials related to moxibustion therapy for treating primary osteoporosis will be included, regardless of publication status and languages. Study selection, data collection, and quality assessment will be independently conducted by 2 researchers. We will select the fixed-effects or random-effects model according to the heterogeneity assessment for data synthesis. Bone mineral density(BMD) will be the primary outcomes. Visual analogue scale(VAS), response rate, TCM Syndrome scale(TCMSS), bone gla protein(BGP), alkaline phosphatase(BALP), blood calcium(Ca), blood phosphate(P), quality of life(QOL) will be the second outcomes. If it is appropriate for meta-analysis, RevMan V.5.3 statistical software will be used. Otherwise, a systematic narrative synthesis will be conducted. The results will be presented as risk ratio (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for dichotomous data and weight mean difference(WMD) or standard mean difference (SMD) 95% CIs for continuous data.