Clinical efficacy and safety of beraprost sodium in the treatment of nephrotic syndrome: A meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Beraprost sodium has been shown to have positive effects in the kidney; however, its efficacy and safety in the treatment of nephrotic syndrome (NS) are currently unknown. Therefore, the aim of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of beraprost sodium in the treatment of NS. METHODS: We systematically searched EMBASE, PubMed, MEDLINE, China National Knowledge Internet (CNKI), Chinese Biomedical Database (CBM), and Wanfang database for articles from their inception to August 2022. RESULTS: A total of 12 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving 1200 subjects were collected for careful evaluation. The meta-analysis indicated that compared with the controls, combination therapy with berprost sodium could remarkably improve the total effective rate (odds ratio 4.21, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.87 to 7.25) and reduce 24 hours proteinuria (mean difference [MD] −1.03, 95% CI: −1.26 to −0.8), serum creatinine (MD −18.39; 95% CI: −27.81 to −8.98), blood urea nitrogen (MD −1.43,95% CI: −1.94 to −0.92), serum total cholesterol (MD −1.24; 95% CI: −1.36 to −1.11), and triglyceride (MD −0.69; 95% CI: −1.03 to −0.35), and increase serum albumin (MD 4.96, 95% CI: 2.98 to 6.93). But the adverse effects of dizziness and headache were higher (RD = 0.05. 95% CI: 0.02 to 0.08). CONCLUSION: For NS patients, combination therapy with beraprost sodium can achieve higher clinical efficacy and significant improvement in renal function than conventional therapy.