Chinese herbal medicine for dyslipidemia: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Dyslipidemia is commonly characterized by the abnormal quantity and quality of lipids in plasma, which is strongly associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and also a major cause of morbidity and even leads to mortality. In China and East Asia, Chinese herbal medicine has been widely used to treat diverse diseases for thousands of years. As an important means of traditional Chinese medicine treatment, Chinese herbal medicine plays a more important role in the treatment of dyslipidemia. The aim of this study is to assess the efficacy and safety of Chinese herbal medicine for dyslipidemia. METHODS: Seven electronic databases (included The Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, Embase, CNKI, VIP, CBM, and WANGFANG) will be searched regardless of publication date or language. Randomized controlled trials will be included if they recruited participants with dyslipidemia for assessing the effect of Chinese herbal medicine vs control (placebo, no treatment, and other therapeutic agents). Primary outcomes will include serum lipid and advent events. Two authors will independently scan the articles searched, extract the data from articles included, and assess the risk of bias by Cochrane tool of risk of bias. Disagreements will be resolved by discussion among authors. All analysis will be performed based on the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. Dichotomous variables will be reported as risk ratio or odds ratio with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) and continuous variables will be summarized as mean difference or standard mean difference with 95% CIs. RESULTS: This review will be to assess the efficacy and safety of Chinese herbal medicine for dyslipidemia. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings will assist clinicians and health professionals make clinical decisions regarding dyslipidemia prevention, and promising way for prevention and treatment of patients with dyslipidemia. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This study is a protocol for systematic review of Chinese herbal medicine as a treatment of dyslipidemia. This review will be published in a journal and disseminated in print by peer-review. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO (CRD42018085556).