Therapeutic effects of Yiqi Huoxue prescription on diabetic nephropathy: a meta-analysis and systematic review

Abstract

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has demonstrated excellent effects in treating diabetic nephropathy, and Yiqi Huoxue prescription has been widely used clinically. In the study, its effects on the kidney function and blood glucose of patients were explored.Chinese and English databases including PubMed, Medline, Embase, and Web of Sciences were used to retrieve articles comparing the treatment of diabetic nephropathy using Yiqi Huoxue prescription on the basis of conventional Western medicine treatment (experimental group) and conventional Western medicine treatment alone (control group) published from January 2000 to December 2020. The risk of bias assessment tool of the Cochrane System Review Manual 5.2.2 and the Jadad scale were used to evaluate the quality of the included literature. The outcome indexes were extracted, and the Review Manager 5.3 software was used for meta-analysis.A total of 13 articles that satisfied the inclusion/exclusion criteria were included in this study. After treatment, compared to the control group, the experimental group exhibited lower urine microalbumin excretion rate (UAER) [mean difference (MD) =-33.94, 95% confidence interval (CI), -42.60 to -25.28, P<0.00001], serum creatinine (SCr) (MD =-7.43, 95% CI, -11.50 to -3.36, P=0.0004), blood urea nitrogen (BUN) (SMD =-1.23, 95% CI, -2.49 to 0.03, P=0.04), blood glucose-related indexes [fasting blood glucose (FBG)] (MD =-0.43, 95% CI, -0.87 to 0.01, P=0.03), glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) (MD =-0.38, 95% CI, -0.68 to -0.08, P=0.01), blood lipid-related indexes [triglycerides (TG)] (MD =-0.44, 95% CI, -0.76 to -0.13, P=0.006), and serum total cholesterol (TC) (MD =-0.37, 95% CI, -0.57 to -0.18, P=0.0002). Furthermore, the experimental group also showed higher effectiveness rate (odds ratio =3.81, 95% CI, 2.71 to 5.35, P<0.00001) after treatment.The included literature had low bias risk. Yiqi Huoxue prescription on the basis of conventional Western medicine can significantly improve the renal function and reduce the levels of blood glucose and blood lipids of patients with diabetic nephropathy.