Meta-analysis of the clinical effect of ligustrazine on diabetic nephropathy

Ligustrazine, a bioactive component contained in Chuanxiong (Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort), is widely applied in the treatment of vascular diseases in China, e.g. myocardial and cerebral infarction. The aim of this study was to perform a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to evaluate the clinical effect of Ligustrazine on diabetic nephropathy (DN). PUBMED, EMBASE, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Chinese Biological Medicine Database (CBM), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) Database, etc. were searched by computer and manual methods to identify RCTs that were used to evaluate the clinical effect of Ligustrazine on DN patients. Twenty five studies comprising 25 RCTs were involved including 1645 patients (858 in the treatment group and 787 in the control group). The meta-analysis suggests that compared with the control group, Ligustrazine injection has a significant therapeutic effect on improving renal function (blood urea nitrogen [BUN] and serum creatinine [SCr]) and reducing in urine protein (24 h urine protein, urine micro albumin and urinary albumin excretion rate [UAER]) in DN patients.