Retracted: rhBNP therapy can improve clinical outcomes and reduce in‐hospital mortality compared with dobutamine in heart failure patients: a meta‐analysis

Abstract

Aims A meta‐analysis was performed to compare the therapeutic outcomes in patients treated for heart failure (HF) with recombinant human brain natriuretic peptide (rhBNP) and dobutamine. Methods PubMed, Embase and the Chinese Biomedical Database were exhaustively searched to identify studies relevant to this meta‐analysis. Eight cohort studies were found suitable for inclusion. Data regarding trial validity, methodological processes and clinical outcomes were extracted. Results Patients treated with rhBNP showed statistically significant reduction of in‐hospital mortality and re‐admission rates compared with the dobutamine treated patient group (both P < 0.05). Further, the rhBNP treated patient group showed higher survival outcomes, compared with dobutamine treated patients, when the post‐treatment follow‐up period was longer than 6 months (P < 0.05). Stratified analysis based on ethnicity showed a dramatic decrease of in‐hospital mortality among mixed race HF patients receiving rhBNP treatment (P < 0.05), but such decreases were not statistically significant in Asian and Caucasian populations (both P > 0.05). On the other hand, re‐admission rates were significantly lower in rhBNP treated Caucasian and mixed race populations (both P < 0.05). Notably, in rhBNP treated group, dose levels of 0.015 and 0.03 incrementally lowered the re‐admission rates, displaying dose effect, and the re‐admission rates at both rhBNP doses were significantly lower than the dobutamine treated group (both P < 0.05). Conclusions Our meta‐analysis results suggested that rhBNP therapy is associated with lower in‐hospital mortality and re‐admission rates in HF patients compared to the dobutamine regimen. Nevertheless, large scale prospective, randomized trials are necessary to confirm these findings.

Organised crime against the academic peer review system

“…In 2015, we published a paper in our journal that we retracted last month. The peer review process of this paper was compromised, but, in addition, our careful editorial process did not function.…”

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The 10-D assessment and evidence-based medicine tool for authors and peer reviewers in clinical pharmacology

“…The problem was that some editors had lost their overview in managing manuscripts submitted to their journals to the extent that some authors had been able to “peer review” their own manuscripts [4]. A retraction was subsequently published after the article had appeared in print.…”

“…The need for such a tool was highlighted recently in an article with the rather ominous title “Organized crime against the academic peer review system” [ 3 ]. The problem was that some editors had lost their overview in managing manuscripts submitted to their journals to the extent that some authors had been able to “peer review” their own manuscripts [ 4 ]. A retraction was subsequently published after the article had appeared in print.…”