title: Is Chinese herbal medicine effective for elderly isolated systolic hypertension? A systematic review and meta-analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study the efficacy of Chinese medicine (CM) on isolated systolic hypertension.
  
  
  METHODS
  Seven electronic databases were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published until August 2015. Subgroup analyses and meta-analysis were performed to assess the efficacy and safety of the included studies.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 24 studies, including 2,096 patients (1,058 patients in the intervention group and 1,038 in the control group), were evaluated in the final analysis. Compared with a conventional therapy used alone, CM as additional intervention was more effective on systolic blood pressure [mean difference (MD)=-0.66, 95% confidence interval (CI)=(-0.97,-0.36), P<0.00001] and significantly diminished the pulse pressure [MD=-7.49, CI=(-12.69,-2.29), P<0.00001]. However it showed no additional benefit on diastolic blood pressure [MD=1.16, CI=(0.02, 2.29), P=0.87]. Adverse events were not explicitly reported in most RCTs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  CM might be a promising approach for the elderly with isolated systolic hypertension, while the evidence for CM employed alone was insufficient. Considering the inherent limitations of the included studies, larger high-quality RCTs with extensive follow-up should be performed to validate our findings in the future.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular Diseases, Guang'anmen Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, 100053, China.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Gerontology Medical Center, Xiyuan Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, 100091, China.
authors.forename: Long-Tao
authors.initials: LT
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular Diseases, Guang'anmen Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, 100053, China. wumin19762000@126.com.
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001794:Blood Pressure; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000188:drug therapy*; D017594:Publication Bias; D011674:Pulse; D013599:Systole; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal
keywords: Chinese herbal medicine; isolated systolic hypertension; meta-analysis; randomized controlled trial; systematic review