SEARCH STRATEGY: Seven electronic databases (PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, EBSCO, China National Knowledge Infrastructure and Wanfang Data electronic databases) were searched from inception to December 2022. Based on the principle of combining subject words with text words, the search strategy was constructed around search terms for "scraping therapy," "scraping," "Guasha," "Gua sha," "hypertension," and "high blood pressure" during the database searches.
INCLUSION CRITERIA: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were included if they recruited patients with stage I and II essential hypertension and included a scraping therapy intervention. The intervention group received antihypertensive drugs and scraping therapy, while the control group only took antihypertensive drugs.
DATA EXTRACTION AND ANALYSIS: Review Manager 5.4.0 and STATA 15.1 were used to enter all the relevant outcome variables to conduct the meta-analysis. The quality of the selected RCTs was assessed using the PEDro scale. The sensitivity analysis was carried out by iteratively excluding individual studies and repeating the analysis to determine the stability of the findings and identify any studies with greater influence on the outcome. Subgroup analysis was performed to find the source of heterogeneity. Funnel plots were used to evaluate the publication bias of included studies.
RESULTS: Nine RCTs including 765 participants were selected. Meta-analysis showed that scraping therapy combined with medication had an advantage over the use of medication alone in lowering systolic blood pressure (mean difference [MD] = -5.09, 95% confidence interval [CI] = -6.50 to -3.67, P Pan, X. Efficacy of scraping therapy on blood pressure and sleep quality in stage I and II essential hypertension: A systematic review and meta-analysis. J Integr Med. 2024; 22(1): 12-21.
METHODS: Six hundred and thirty-six adults with biopsy-proven non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) from two independent Asian cohorts were enrolled in our study. Liver stiffness measurement (LSM) was assessed by vibration-controlled transient elastography (Fibroscan). Fibrotic NASH was defined as NASH with a NAFLD activity score (NAS) ≥ 4 and F ≥ 2 fibrosis.
RESULTS: Metabolic syndrome (MetS), platelet count and MACK-3 were independent predictors of fibrotic NASH. On the basis of their regression coefficients, we developed a novel nomogram showing a good discriminatory ability (area under receiver operating characteristic curve [AUROC]: 0.79, 95% confidence interval [CI 0.75-0.83]) and a high negative predictive value (NPV: 94.7%) to rule out fibrotic NASH. In the validation set, this nomogram had a higher AUROC (0.81, 95%CI 0.74-0.87) than that of MACK-3 (AUROC: 0.75, 95%CI 0.68-0.82; P