| ABSTRACT Objective:To evaluate systematically the clinical effectiveness and safety of Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F (TwHF) extract in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods:Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) regarding RA treated by TwHF were searched in the PubMed, Medline, EMbase, Cochrane, CNKI, SinoMed and Wanfang databases. The Cochrane risk of bias method was used to assess the quality of included studies，and a Meta analysis was conducted with Review Manager 5.2 software．Results:A total of 10 studies were enrolled，compared TwHF with placebo，tender joint count (TJC), grip strength (GS), RF and ESR of TwHF group were significant superior to that of control group (P<0.05)．Compared TwHF with DMARDs，duration of morning stiffness (DMS) and RF were significant superior to that of DMARDs group (P<0.05)．Compared TwHF plus DMARDs with DMARDs，swollen joint count (SJC) and ESR of TwHF plus DMARDs were significant superior to that of DMARDs group (P<0.05)．Compared TwHF plus DMARDs with 2 DMARDs combined group，TJC, SJC, ESR and CRP of TwHF plus DMARDs were significant superior to that of DMARDs combined group (P<0.05)． Conclusion:The therapeutic use of DH was effective for RA, but high quality double blinded RCTs with larger samples were needed for a further analysis． |
