Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), a common disease with a complex etiology in the world, is an important risk factor for severe cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. However, treatments of T2DM are mainly based on Western medicine, whose severe side effects make traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) therapy more appealing to patients and clinicians. The overall clinical evidence for different TCM therapies in the treatment of T2DM is still unclear. This study aimed to adopt the evidence-mapping method and integrate the evidence from various researches on this topic, to depict the whole picture of TCM therapies for T2DM. This review included searches of PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and three major Chinese literature databases (CNKI, VIP, and Wanfang) from inception to November 18, 2021. Two independent reviewers screened the literature, extracted information, and evaluated the quality of all included studies. A systematic review was subsequently performed. In total, 47 studies were reviewed, of which 46 studies (97.9%) were from China and 1 (2.1%) was from Canada. The evidence map was conducted according to different TCM therapies, including herbs or herbal extracts, compounds, powders, decoctions, pills, external treatment, basic theories and treatment principles of TCM, proprietary Chinese medicines, and unspecified TCM integrated therapies. According to the AMSTAR-2 scoring results, 4 papers were rated as high quality, 11 were low quality, and 32 were very low quality. Outcome indicators mainly focused on FBG, HbA1c, 2-h PBG, TC, TG, LDL-C, etc. The results showed that different types of TCM treatment had different improvement effects on the outcome indicators of T2DM. More consistent benefits were observed in the improvement of FBG, HbA1c, and 2-h PBG with treatment regimens based on basic theories and treatment principles of TCM, decoctions and pills, and unspecified TCM integrated therapies. Among herbs, ginger and Coptis root showed more improvement in all outcomes. Compounds, powders, and external treatment showed relatively consistent beneficial effects on the improvement of FBG. No serious adverse events were reported. Overall, the current evidence map provided an intuitive overview of the beneficial effects of TCM therapies in the treatment of type 2 diabetes. This study can be used as a reference for the clinical application of traditional Chinese medicine in T2DM, but due to the low-quality level of the included studies, it should be treated with caution in clinical practices.
Acupuncture clinical practice guidelines are authoritative medical recommendations developed by evaluating and integrating acupuncture-related evidence. However, their synthesis and dissemination are not integrated, and clinical practitioners require more credible effective evidence. The study aim was to systematically review problems disseminating acupuncture clinical practice guidelines to clinical practitioners, to facilitate evidence dissemination. This systematic review included searches of PubMed, EBSCO, Web of Science, and four major Chinese electronic databases (CNKI, VIP, Wanfang Database, and SinoMed) from inception to October 26, 2021. Two independent reviewers screened the literature, extracted information, and evaluated the quality of included studies. A systematic review was subsequently performed. Eleven studies were reviewed: nine (81.8%) cross-sectional surveys and two (18.2%) systematic reviews. The evaluated clinical practice guidelines differed across studies; seven studies (63.6%) evaluated guidelines for a specific disease, one (9.1%) evaluated guidelines for acupuncture therapies (e.g., moxibustion and fire acupuncture), one (9.1%) evaluated US acupuncture guidelines and recommendations, and two (18.2%) did not describe the guideline content. The included studies used different evaluation indicators. Guideline dissemination problems included lack of guideline standardization, unclear target population, mismatch between guidelines and application environment, lack of reliable health economics evaluation, poor quality content of the recommendations, lack of linkage between recommendations and evidence, and disassociation of recommendations from clinical practice et al. The development and publishing of credible acupuncture clinical practice guidelines is urgently needed to improve the usability of guidelines and standardize and disseminate tools for analysing information to clinical practitioners and to help the domestic and international acupuncture community to apply evidence to practice. Recommendations for promoting the dissemination of acupuncture clinical practice guidelines are to define clinical events suitable for the target population, to develop recommendations relevant to clinical practice, to improve the evidence evaluation index system, and to further standardize the method and process of formulating guidelines.
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