Allergy Asthma Immunol Res.  2018 Jan;10(1):34-42. 10.4168/aair.2018.10.1.34.

Chinese Herbal Medicine to Treat Allergic Rhinitis: Evidence From a Meta-Analysis

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery and Department of allergy, Beijing TongRen Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China. dr.luozhang@139.com
  • 2Beijing Key Laboratory of Nasal Diseases, Beijing Institute of Otolaryngology, Beijing, China.

Abstract

PURPOSE
Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) has been widely used in China to treat allergic rhinitis (AR). However, several studies have produced conflicting data with regard to the efficacy of the medicine. Our aim was to perform a meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) to evaluate the relative efficacy of CHM.
METHODS
We systematically searched the PubMed, Medline, and Springer electronic databases up to March 2017 for RCTs comparing the efficacy of CHM versus placebo for the treatment of patients with AR. Total nasal symptoms and quality of life were assessed through pooling mean difference (MD) with its 95% confidence interval (CI). Moreover, sensitivity and subgroup analyses according to control design and quality of life assessment were performed to evaluate the source of heterogeneity.
RESULTS
Eleven RCTs were enrolled in the meta-analysis. Assessment of overall heterogeneity indicated significant heterogeneity among the individual studies (I 2=100%, P<0.00001), and thus ransomed effects model was used to pool data. CHM was found to significantly enhance quality of life compared with placebo (MD=-0.88, (95% CI: -1.55, -0.21); P=0.01). The symptom of itchy nose, sneezing or total nasal symptoms scores were not significantly improved after CHM treatment, although the improvement in itchy nose just failed to reach significance (MD=0.09, (95% CI: 0.00, 0.18); P=0.06).
CONCLUSIONS
This study suggests that CHM appears to improve the quality of life of AR patients. However, these findings, as well as the findings for the effect of CHM on sneezing, total nasal symptoms, and the symptom of itchy nose, need to be substantiated in larger cohorts of AR patients by further well-designed studies.

Keyword

Allergic rhinitis; Chinese herbal medicine; nasal symptom

MeSH Terms

Asian Continental Ancestry Group*
China
Cohort Studies
Herbal Medicine*
Humans
Nose
Population Characteristics
Quality of Life
Rhinitis, Allergic*
Sneezing

Figure

  • Fig. 1 Literature search and study selection.

  • Fig. 2 Quality assessment of the trials included in this meta-analysis. (A) Risk of bias graph. (B) Risk of bias summary.

  • Fig. 3 Forest plot of sneezing and itchy nose based on Rhino Conjunctivitis Quality of Life Questionnaire of eligible studies comparing Chinese herbal medicine with control. (A) sneezing. (B) itchy nose.

  • Fig. 4 Forest plot of total nasal symptom of eligible studies comparing Chinese herbal medicine with control. (A) Total nasal symptom of eligible studies comparing Chinese herbal medicine with control. (B) Total nasal symptom of eligible studies comparing Chinese herbal medicine with placebo.

  • Fig. 5 Forest plot of quality of life comparing Chinese herbal medicine with control. (A) quality of life evaluation. (B) Rhino conjunctivitis Quality of Life evaluation. (C) 36-item Short Form Health Survey.


Cited by  1 articles

Chinese Society of Allergy Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Allergic Rhinitis
Lei Cheng, Jianjun Chen, Qingling Fu, Shaoheng He, Huabin Li, Zheng Liu, Guolin Tan, Zezhang Tao, Dehui Wang, Weiping Wen, Rui Xu, Yu Xu, Qintai Yang, Chonghua Zhang, Gehua Zhang, Ruxin Zhang, Yuan Zhang, Bing Zhou, Dongdong Zhu, Luquan Chen, Xinyan Cui, Yuqin Deng, Zhiqiang Guo, Zhenxiao Huang, Zizhen Huang, Houyong Li, Jingyun Li, Wenting Li, Yanqing Li, Lin Xi, Hongfei Lou, Meiping Lu, Yuhui Ouyang, Wendan Shi, Xiaoyao Tao, Huiqin Tian, Chengshuo Wang, Min Wang, Nan Wang, Xiangdong Wang, Hui Xie, Shaoqing Yu, Renwu Zhao, Ming Zheng, Han Zhou, Luping Zhu, Luo Zhang
Allergy Asthma Immunol Res. 2018;10(4):300-353.    doi: 10.4168/aair.2018.10.4.300.


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