Astragalus injection for asthma: A meta-analysis and systematic review

Le Bai, Yong Xu, Li Zhang, Xian-Mei Zhou

Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210029, China

ARTICLE INFO

Article history:Received 12 Feb 2022 Received in revised form 25 Feb 2022 Accepted 2 Mar 2022 Available online 14 Mar 2022

Keywords:Astragalus injection Asthma Meta-analysis Systematic review

ABSTRACT Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of Astragalus Injection on asthma. Methods: CNKI,VIP, Wan Fang Database, Medline, Embase, Web of Science and Cochrane Library were searched for published researches up to November, 2020. Randomized controlled trials that focused on Astragalus Injection for asthma were included. We managed the data analysis with RevMan 5.3 software. Results: A total of 17 RCTs with 1648 patients were involved in the meta-analysis which indicated that Astragalus Injection could improve clinical efficacy[OR= 4.72, 95%CI(3.08,7.24), P ＜ 0.00001] and improve FEV1[MD = 0.48, 95%CI(0.32,0.64),P ＜ 0.00001], while reduce IL-4[MD = -6.29, 95%CI(-8.91,-3.66), P ＜ 0.00001], IL-6[MD =-18.46, 95%CI(-23.17,-13.75), P ＜ 0.00001] and IL-17[MD = -3.14, 95%CI(-5.51,-0.76), P ＜0.00001] and decrease adverse events[OR = 0.18, 95%CI(0.08,0.43), P = 0.0001]. Conclusion:Astragalus Injection is more effective and of safety, but more RCTs are needed.