Acupuncture and Related Therapies for Hyperlipidemia: A Network Meta-Analysis
- Hui Zhang
- Jan 12, 2021
- 2 min read
Fig. 3. The network structure for treatment comparisons of TC, TG, LDL-C and HDL-C A, TC. B, TG. C, LDL-C. D, HDL-C. Wang et al., 2020
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Song et al compared and ranked the clinical effects of different acupuncture and related therapies on hyperlipidemia patients [1]. They analyzed 3124 patients, involving 12 types of acupuncture and related therapies and comprehensive therapies. The results showed that: for the total cholesterol (TC), acupoint catgut embedding (ACE), simple acupuncture (ACU), acupoint injection (AI), electroacupuncture (EA), western medicine of statins (WM), and combination of acupuncture and related therapies (combined therapies) were all more effective than placebo (P < 0.05). For triacylglycerol (TG), ACU, EA, warming acupuncture (WA), WM, and combined therapies were better than placebo (P < 0.05), while WA was better than Chinese herb (CH) (P < 0.05). For low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), combined therapies were more effective than lifestyle modification (LM) (P < 0.05). For high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), auricular acupoint stimulation (AAS), ACE, ACU, AI, CH, EA, LM, moxibustion (MOX), WM, combined therapies, and placebo were all worse than WA (P < 0.05), while WM and combined therapies were better than ACU (P < 0.05). Combined ranking results suggest that ACU and combined therapies may be the optimal intervention.
Therefore, they concluded that the efficacy of all kinds of acupuncture-related therapies in patients with hyperlipidemia is better than lifestyle changes. However, for different outcome indicators, all kinds of acupuncture-related therapies have their advantages and disadvantages, and comprehensive ranking results suggest that ACU and combined therapies may be the optimal intervention.
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Sheng J, Jin X, Zhu J, Chen Y, Liu X. The effectiveness of acupoint catgut embedding therapy for abdominal obesity: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine. 2019 Jan 1;2019.
Reference
Wang X, Wang Y, Li J, Yu C, Wu M, Kong L. Acupuncture and related therapies for hyperlipidemia: A protocol for systematic review and network meta-analysis. Digital Chinese Medicine. 2020, 3(4):309-326.
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