title: Efficacy and safety of different dosages of praziquantel for the treatment of schistosoma japonicum: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Praziquantel, an antischistosomal compound, is used as first-line drug for chemotherapy of Schistosoma japonicum since 1984. In this article, we conducted a systematic review and mete-analysis to evaluate the efficacy and safety of different dosages of praziquantel (PZQ) for treatment of Schistosoma japonicum.
  
  
  METHODS
  A number of six articles published in peer-reviewed journals before December 2012 were selected for analysis after searching the following literature databases: PubMed/Medline, the Chinese WanFang Literature Database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (1994-2012.12), and the Chinese Biomedical Literature (1978-2012.12).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The meta-analyses showed that there is no statistically significant difference of the negative rate on the egg using 40 mg/kg compared to 60 mg/kg PZQ for S. japonicum treatment (RR 0.79, 95% CI 0.46 1.35; P < 0.39). The meta-analysis showed that there is no statistically significant difference of the side effects using 30 mg/kg compared with 40 mg/kg (RR 0.97, 95% CI 0.68 1.38; P = 0.87), 40 mg/kg compared with 60 mg/kg (RR 0.79, 95% CI 0.46 1.35; P = 0.39) and 50 mg/kg compared with 60 mg/kg (RR 0.89, 95% CI 0.56 1.42; P = 0.63).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  According to the results, there is no statistically significant difference in different doses of PZQ for treating S. japonicum.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China ; Department of Immunology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Zhejiang Medical College, Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Damin
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathogenic Biology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou,China.
authors.forename: Si
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathogenic Biology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou,China.
authors.forename: Julong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathogenic Biology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou,China.
authors.forename: Xun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathogenic Biology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou,China.
authors.forename: Meng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoling
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China.
authors.forename: Huiyu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China.
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China.
authors.forename: Xingming
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ma
keywords: Meta-Analysis; Praziquantel; Schistosomiasis Japonicum