Chinese Herbal Medicine Combined with Intravitreal Antivascular Growth Factor Agents in Treatment of Macular Edema Secondary to Retinal Vein Occlusion: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Table 3
GRADE for quality of evidence profile.
Quality assessment
No. of patients
Absolute effect (95% CI)
Quality
No. of studies
Study design
Risk of bias
Inconsistency
Indirectness
Imprecision
Other considerations
CHM combined with anti-VEGF agents
Anti-VEGF agents
BCVA 1W
4
RCT
Seriousa
Not serious
Not serious
Seriousd
None
140
131
MD −0.01 (−0.06, 0.05)
⊕⊕⃝⃝LOW
BCVA 1M
6
RCT
Seriousa
Seriousc
Not Serious
Not serious
None
220
211
MD −0.02 (−0.06, 0.02)
⊕⊕⃝⃝LOW
BCVA 2M
2
RCT
Seriousa
Not serious
Not serious
Seriousd
None
78
76
MD 0.04 (−0.01, 0.08)
⊕⊕⃝⃝LOW
BCVA 3M
6
RCT
Seriousa,b
Seriousc
Not serious
Not serious
None
249
240
MD −0.09 (−0.13,−0.05)
⊕⊕⃝⃝LOW
BCVA 6M
5
RCT
Seriousa,b
Seriousc
Not serious
Not serious
None
219
210
MD −0.10 (−0.18,−0.03)
⊕⊕⃝⃝LOW
BCVA 12M
1
RCT
Seriousa
Not serious
Not serious
Seriousd
None
75
75
MD −0.10 (−0.18,−0.02)
⊕⊕⃝⃝LOW
CMT 1W
4
RCT
Seriousa
Not serious
Not serious
Seriousd
None
140
131
MD −8.14 (−22.23, 5.96)
⊕⊕⃝⃝LOW
CMT 1M
8
RCT
Seriousa
Seriousc
Not serious
Seriousd
None
271
262
MD −38.64 (−70.18, −7.10)
⊕⃝⃝⃝VERY LOW
CMT 2M
3
RCT
Seriousa
Not serious
Not serious
Seriousd
None
99
97
MD −19.57 (−31.11, −8.02)
⊕⊕⃝⃝LOW
CMT 3M
8
RCT
Seriousa
Seriousc
Not serious
Seriousd
None
325
316
MD −61.81 (−99.84, −23.77)
⊕⃝⃝⃝VERY LOW
CMT 6M
9
RCT
Seriousa
Seriousc
Not serious
Seriousd
None
346
337
MD −60.22 (−87.97, −32.47)
⊕⃝⃝⃝VERY LOW
CMT 12M
1
RCT
Seriousa
Not serious
Not serious
Seriousd
None
75
75
MD −115.10 (−143.75, −86.45)
⊕⊕⃝⃝LOW
Number of anti-VEGF injections
6
RCT
Seriousa
Seriousc
Not serious
Not Serious
None
220
211
MD −1.03 (−1.44, −0.61)
⊕⊕⃝⃝LOW
Total effective rate
5
RCT
Seriousa
Not serious
Not serious
Not serious
None
231
231
RR 1.26 (1.16, 1.38)
⊕⊕⊕⃝MODERATE
amissing detail about blindness, allocation concealment, and other biases, bno clear randomization procedure is described, chigh heterogeneity leads to serious inconsistency, and dthe wide confidence interval indicates imprecision and the sample size is small.