title: Huangqi injection (a traditional Chinese patent medicine) for chronic heart failure: a systematic review.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Chronic heart failure (CHF) is a global public health problem. Therefore, novel and effective drugs that show few side-effects are needed. Early literature studies indicated that Huangqi injection is one of the most commonly used traditional Chinese patent medicines for CHF in China. As a large number of clinical studies has been carried out and published, it is essential to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of Huangqi injection. Therefore, we carried out this systematic review under the support of the framework of the Joint Sino-Italian Laboratory (JoSIL).
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the efficacy and safety of Huangqi injection for CHF according to the available scientific knowledge.
  
  
  METHODS
  An extensive search including PubMed, EMBASE, CBM, the Cochrane Library and Chinese literature databases was performed up to July 2008. Clinical trials regarding Huangqi injection for the treatment of CHF were searched for, irrespective of languages. The quality of each trial was assessed according to the Cochrane Reviewers' Handbook 5.0, and RevMan 5.0 provided by the Cochrane Collaboration and STATA 9.2 were used for data analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After selection of 1,205 articles, 62 RCTs and quasi-RCTs conducted in China and published in Chinese journals were included in the review. The methodological quality of the trials was low. In most trials inclusion and exclusion criteria were not specified. Furthermore, only one study evaluated the outcomes for drug efficacy after an adequate period of time. For these reasons and because of the different baseline characteristics we did not conduct a meta-analysis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although available studies are not adequate to draw a conclusion on the efficacy and safety of Huangqi injection (a traditional Chinese patent medicine), we hope that our work could provide useful experience on further studies on Huangqi injections. The overall level of TCM clinical research needs to be improved so that the efficacy of TCM can be evaluated by the international community and possibly some TCM can enter into the international market.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Evidence-Based Medicine Center and Tianjin State Key Laboratory of Modern Chinese Medicine, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, China.
authors.forename: Shufei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: Junhua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Menniti-Ippolito
authors.forename: Xiumei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Galeotti
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Massari
authors.forename: Limin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Boli
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Rita
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ferrelli
authors.forename: Alice
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fauci
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Firenzuoli
authors.forename: Hongcai
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shang
authors.forename: Ranieri
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Guerra
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Raschetti
mesh_terms: D027883:Astragalus Plant / Q000009:adverse effects; D027885:Astragalus propinquus; D002908:Chronic Disease; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000145:classification / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D007267:Injections; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional; D010330:Patents as Topic; D013318:Stroke Volume / Q000187:drug effects; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; C027492:Huang Qi