Screening methods of traditional Chinese medicine for coronary heart disease and angina pectoris: an exploration based on core outcome set and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation / 中国中药杂志

It was pointed out in Opinions on Promoting the Inheritance, Innovation and Development of Traditional Chinese Medicine issued by the State Council in 2019 that 100 varieties of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) with unique curative effects should be screened out within about three years. Due to the multi-component and multi-target mechanisms of TCM varieties, it is difficult to directly and simply evaluate their multi-dimensional clinical value using methods applicable to chemical or biological agents. The heterogeneity of outcomes for similar TCM makes it difficult to determine the advantages of similar products. The fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method that is developed on the basis of core outcome set and fuzzy mathematics for clinical efficacy evaluation of TCM may solve these problems. This study developed a fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model for the clinical efficacy evaluation of Chinese patent me-dicines for coronary heart disease and angina pectoris, and selected the previous normative studies with complete or incomplete data for verifying the model application. The results showed that original studies with complete data failed to evaluate and compare the comprehensive efficacy of different interventions. The original research only mentioned the advantages and disadvantages of different interventions in different aspects. The comprehensive clinical efficacy of three different interventions obtained through fuzzy comprehensive evaluation was all graded as level Ⅱ. The original research with incomplete data drew the same conclusions as the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation, and the results of fuzzy comprehensive evaluation can provide more comprehensive information. Therefore, the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation shows the products with overall advantages of clinical efficacy, which may become a feasible method for the screening of TCM.

Methods for development of a core outcome set for clinical trials integrating traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine / 中西医结合学报

Clinical trial outcome reporting differs between studies integrating traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and Western medicine, so that some clinical trials are not eligible for inclusion in a systematic review. The excluded studies are therefore less widely disseminated, and even valid studies are less likely to yield impact. This problem may be addressed by developing core outcome sets (COSs) for integrative medicine in specific healthcare areas. The first stage of development is to define the scope of the COS for integrative medicine, the second stage is to establish the need for such a COS, and the third stage is to develop a protocol and register the COS. The final stage involves three steps: (i) development of a comprehensive list of outcomes (including efficacy outcomes and safety outcomes and TCM syndromes) using systematic review, qualitative or cross-sectional research, and reviews of package inserts and medical records; (ii) merging and grouping of outcomes within domains; (iii) conducting two rounds of Delphi survey and consensus meetings with a range of stakeholders. The final COS will include a general COS and core TCM syndrome- set. Development of COSs for clinical trials of integrative medicine may help to standardize outcome reporting and reduce publication bias in the future.