title: Ligustrazine for the Treatment of Unstable Angina: A Meta-Analysis of 16 Randomized Controlled Trials.
abstract: Ligustrazine is a principal ingredient of chuanxiong. Concerns regarding the evaluation of the effectiveness of ligustrazine in the treatment of UA have resulted in a meta-analysis combined with recent clinical evidence. Seven computer databases that included the China hospital knowledge database (CHKD), Wanfang Med Online, the Chinese medical journal database (CMJD), PubMed, Cochrane, Embase (Ovid), and Medline (Ovid) were systematically searched. We included randomized controlled trials and quasi-randomized controlled trials. Our systematic review identified 16 RCTs that met our eligibility criteria. Ligustrazine combined with conventional medicine was associated with an increased rate of marked improvement in symptoms and an increased rate of marked improvement of ECG compared with conventional Western medicine alone. Additionally, the use of ligustrazine was associated with significant trends in the reduction of the consumption of nitroglycerin and the level of fibrinogen when compared with conventional Western medicine alone. No firm results were found between the intervention and the control method groups in the reduction of the time of onset or the frequency of acute attack angina due to the high level of heterogeneity. In conclusion, our meta-analysis found that ligustrazine was associated with some benefits for people with unstable angina.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin 300193, China.
authors.forename: Suman
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Graduate School, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin 300193, China; Department of Neurology, Nankai Hospital, Tianjin Academy of Integrative Medicine, Tianjin 300100, China.
authors.forename: Wenli
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Department of Chinese Medicine, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin 300193, China.
authors.forename: Huaien
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bu
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Research, Nankai Hospital, Tianjin Academy of Integrative Medicine, Tianjin 300100, China.
authors.forename: Ye
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Editorial Department, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin 300193, China.
authors.forename: Chunquan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yu