systematic review and meta-analysis on the efficacy of angong niuhuang pill in viral encephalitis

Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis on Viral Encephalitis Treatments

Encephalitis is defined as the inflammation of the brain parenchyma with high mortality, characterized by neurological pathological signs, fever, abnormal mental status, and altered electroencephalographic (EEG) and neuroimaging1,2. The incidence of encephalitis ranges between 7 and 15 cases per 100,000 people3,4,5. The cause of approximately half of encephalitis cases is unknown, and viral encephalitis (VE) accounts for about 20% to 50% of diagnosed cases5,6. Common viruses include human enterovirus, human herpesvirus, herpes simplex virus, human immunodeficiency virus, and cytomegalovirus7. Patients with VE require intensive monitoring and supportive measures to maintain vital signs and alleviate cerebral inflammation8. Acyclovir is an empiric treatment for all cases of VE9. Evidence for the use of glucocorticoids, immunoglobulins, and interferon alfa are inconsistent8. Angong Niuhuang Pill (ANP), one of the well-known orifice-opening medicines, is widely used in mental and conscious abnormalities due to critical illness. China Medical Education Association recommended ANP as an A-level strength of recommendation and II-level quality of evidence (evidence from non-randomized studies or randomized controlled trials)10.
A systematic review (SR) is a comprehensive collection and rigorous evaluation of all clinical studies that meet the inclusion criteria. Meta-analysis is a methodology for quantitative analysis in SR. Distinguishing from the methods of basic meta-analysis, a trim and fill procedure was adopted to test the robustness of the effect size estimate to the assessment of publication bias11. A small number of studies were removed until a new effect size made the plot symmetrical. Additional studies were added back to the plot based on imputed mirror-image studies. If the difference of the recalculated pooled estimate (PE) before and after the trim and fill procedure was less than 0.05, the effect size estimate of publication bias was robust. TSA 0.9.5.10 software was used to reduce the risk of false-positive results and calculate the required information size (RIS), which was beneficial to make our findings more robust. Given that no systematic review of the data on the improvement of symptoms, signs, biochemical indicators, and adverse reactions of ANP in the treatment of VE, we therefore performed this meta-analysis of the available randomized controlled trials.

Author Spotlight: Evaluating the Adjuvant Efficacy and Safety of Angong Niuhuang Pill in Viral Encephalitis Treatment

The Adjuvant Efficacy of Angong Niuhuang Pill in the Treatment of Viral Encephalitis: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis on the Efficacy of Angong Niuhuang Pill in Viral Encephalitis

Research

JoVE Journal

Medicine

This meta-analysis aims to evaluate the efficacy of Angong Niuhuang Pill (ANP) as an adjuvant therapy in the treatment of viral encephalitis. Seven ...

Advanced Data Analysis in Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis on the Efficacy of Angong Niuhuang Pill Using STATA Software