Systematic evaluation of acupuncture for carotid atherosclerosis

Objective: Evaluate the efficacy of acupuncture in the treatment of carotid atherosclerosis. Method: Retrieving CNKI, VIP, CBM, Pubmed, EMBASE and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. As of October 15, 2014. Statistical analysis using RevMan 5.3, stata12.0, and gradePro rated the quality of evidence. Results: A total of 637 patients were included in 8 studies, RevMan bias risk evaluation showed generally lower quality of the literature .Meta analysis showed that acupuncture or acupuncture compared to conventional Western medicine treatment Synthetic therapy , the difference in efficacy is statistically significant in improving IMT, LDC-L, PSV, RI, EDV, etc. Meta results are (MD=-0.21,95% CI [-0.33, -0.08], P=0.001), (MD=-0.21,95% CI [-0.31, -0.11], P^0.0001), (MD= 0.14,95% CI [0.06,0.22], P=0.0005), (MD=-0.07,95% CI [-0.10, -0.05], P0.00001), (MD=7.76,95% CI [5.63,9.89], P0.00001) .Evidence grading hints that current grades are “extremely low” to “low”. Conclusion: Acupuncture therapy may be an effective treatment for carotid atherosclerosis, but higher quality evidence support is still needed.