Abstract
Background In recent years, there have been many clinical reports on acupuncture treatment of cough-variant asthma, but no researcher has objectively analysed and evaluated the efficacy and safety of acupuncture treatment of cough-variant asthma from the perspective of evidence-based medicine. Objective To systematically evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of acupuncture in treating cough-variant asthma and to provide reference values for clinical decision-making. Methods The comprehensive computer retrieval Chinese journal full-text database (CNKI), Chinese science and technology periodical database (VIP), ten thousand data knowledge service platform (WanFang Data), PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library were used to collect literature for relevant randomized controlled trials (RCT) of acupuncture treatment of cough-variant asthma, as well as to retrieve papers and add reference retrieval after literature review, in accordance with the standard of literature filtering, data extraction, and quality evaluation. The data were meta-analysed using ReviewManager5.3 software recommended by Cochrane. Results A total of 11 randomized controlled clinical studies were screened and included, comprising 929 patients. The results of the meta-analysis showed that, compared with the control group, acupuncture intervention on CVA could enhance the total clinical effectiveness rate, reduce the relapse rate of drug withdrawal, relieve symptoms of cough, phlegm, and diaphragmatic congestion, and improve lung function-related indicators and immune inflammation indicators. There were statistically significant differences in all efficacy evaluation criteria. Conclusion The clinical curative effect of acupuncture treatment for cough-variant asthma is precise and has certain advantages in relieving symptoms and reducing the recurrence rate. However, the low quality of the evaluation in the RCT research literature is a problem, and more high-quality clinical randomized controlled trials are needed to further verify the comprehensive clinical efficacy and safety of this treatment. Registration number: PROSPERO (no. CRD42020155244) (https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/).
Highlights
Cough-variant asthma (CVA) is a common special type of asthma
An investigation on the aetiology of 704 patients with chronic cough in 5 regions of China showed that CVA accounted for the highest proportion, 32.6%, of the aetiology of chronic cough, which is one of the most important causes of chronic cough in China [2]
According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 66 studies were selected after repeated retrieval, with 12 non-CVA-related studies, 11 nonacupuncture therapies, 3 reviews, and 2 cases with experience cases and experiences
Summary
Cough-variant asthma (CVA) is a common special type of asthma. Chronic cough is the main or the only manifestation of respiratory disease in the clinic. There have been many clinical reports on acupuncture treatment of cough-variant asthma, but no researcher has objectively analysed and evaluated the efficacy and safety of acupuncture treatment of cough-variant asthma from the perspective of evidence-based medicine. To systematically evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of acupuncture in treating cough-variant asthma and to provide reference values for clinical decision-making. E results of the metaanalysis showed that, compared with the control group, acupuncture intervention on CVA could enhance the total clinical effectiveness rate, reduce the relapse rate of drug withdrawal, relieve symptoms of cough, phlegm, and diaphragmatic congestion, and improve lung function-related indicators and immune inflammation indicators.
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