The association between levels of serum homocysteine and chronic heart failure: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Homocysteine (Hcy) is one of the main factors leading to arteriosclerosis, which is closely related to cardiovascular disease. Recent studies have found that serum Hcy levels are increased in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF), and it is speculated that Hcy may be a risk factor for CHF, but evidence-based medicine evidence is lacking. The aim of this study was to investigate the correlation between serum Hcy levels and CHF by means of systematic review. METHODS: The databases of PubMed, Embase, The Cochrance Library, Web of Science, CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure), VIP (China Science and Technology Journal Database), Wanfang and China Biology Medicine disc were searched by computer. In addition, Baidu Scholar and Google Scholar were manually searched to collect all case–control studies related to serum Hcy and CHF. The search time limit was from database establishment to November 2020. Two reviewers independently screened the literatures, extracted the data and evaluated the risk of bias of the included literatures. RESULTS: In this study, we evaluated the correlation between serum Hcy levels and CHF by the levels of serum Hcy in CHF patients and non-CHF patients. CONCLUSIONS: This study will provide reliable evidence for the clinical value of serum Hcy in the field of CHF disease. OSF REGISTRATION NUMBER: DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/QMPRC.