OBJECTIVE: To systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of oral Chinese patent medicine combined with conventional western medicine in the treatment of adult cough variant asthma（CVA）. METHODS: CNKI

Wanfang Data

VIP

CBM

PubMed

Embase

and the Cochrane Library were retrieved to collect the clinical randomized controlled trial of oral Chinese patent medicine combined with conventional western medicine in the treatment of adult CVA

the retrieval time was from the establishment of the database to Jan. 2022. Literature was screened strictly according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. NoteExpress 3.5 and Excel software were used for data extraction

and RevMan 5.4 software was used for literature quality evaluation and statistical analysis. RESULTS: A total of 35 articles were enrolled

including 2 947 patients with CVA. Meta-analysis showed that compared with conventional western medicine treatment

oral Chinese patent medicine combined with conventional western medicine had significant efficacy in improving the total clinical efficiency（RR=1.21

95%CI=1.16-1.25

P<0.000 01）

forced expiratory volume in one second（SMD=1.59

95%CI=1.17-2.01

P<0.000 01）

forced vital capacity（SMD=1.58

95%CI=0.99-2.18

P<0.000 01）

forced expiratory volume in one second/forced vital capacity（SMD=1.29

95%CI=0.65-1.94

P<0.000 1） and peak expiratory flow（SMD=1.00

95%CI=0.65-1.36

P<0.000 01）

had advantages in reducing levels of interleukin-4（SMD=-1.56

95%CI=-2.47--0.64

P=0.000 8）

interleukin-6（SMD=-1.83

95%CI=-2.50--1.16

P<0.000 01）

tumor necrosis factor-α（SMD=-1.72

95%CI=-2.11--1.34

P<0.000 01） and eosinophils（SMD=-1.35

95%CI=-1.78--0.92

P<0.000 01）

and could effectively improve the cough symptom score（daytime cough symptom score: SMD=-2.07

95%CI=-3.07--1.07

P<0.000 1; nocturnal cough symptom score: SMD=-2.26

95%CI=-3.39--1.12

P<0.000 1） with lower incidence of adverse drug reactions（RR=0.55

95%CI=0.33-0.93

P=0.03）

the differences were statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: The clinical efficacy of oral Chinese patent medicine combined with conventional western medicine in the treatment of adult CVA is significant with higher safety. However

due to the limited quality and quantity of the included literature

larger scale randomized controlled trials are still needed to verify it in the future.