Cardioprotective effect of acupuncture for percutaneous coronary intervention-related myocardial injury in patients with coronary artery disease: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Although patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) rely increasingly upon percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), this therapy causes subsequent the complications of myocardial injury. Acupuncture safely protects the heart from ischemic injury; however, the efficacy of acupuncture for periprocedural myocardial injury after PCI remains unclear. METHODS: Seven databases in English and Chinese including PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Embase, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, and Wanfang Database will be searched. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that use acupuncture to treat PCI-related myocardial injury in patients with CAD, regardless of blinding. The crossover randomized trials will be included, but only the pre-crossover data will be analyzed to avoid carryover effects. We will exclude non-RCTs, qualitative studies, uncontrolled clinical trials, and laboratory studies. The measurement of concentration of cardiac troponin (T or I) and MB isoenzyme of creatine kinase will be used as primary outcome. Postprocedural cardiac function and the major adverse cardiac/cerebrovascular event rate will be assessed as secondary outcome. Relevant data were collected independently by 2 reviewers and the third reviewer was responsible for resolving discrepancies through discussion. The Review Manager V.5.3.3 s will be used to perform the data synthesis and subgroup analysis. DISCUSSION: This systematic review and meta-analysis would provide convincing evidence of various types of acupuncture that specifically focuses on cardioprotective effect of acupuncture on PCI-related myocardial injury. REGISTRATION: Open Science Framework (OSF) registries (osf.io/n2e6t) with the registration DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/79H2E.