Five commonly used traditional Chinese medicine formulas in the treatment of ulcerative colitis: A network meta-analysis

Figure 1 Screening flow diagram of included studies. CNKI: China National Knowledge Infrastructure; PubMed: Publication Database of the National Library of Medicine; VIP: Chinese Scientific Journal Database.

Figure 2  Bias risk assessment of included studies.

Figure 3 Network meta-analysis. A-E: Network meta-analysis maps of the studies examining the efficacy of five Chinese herbal formulas for adjuvant treatment of ulcerative colitis on clinical efficacy (A), baron points (B), Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire points (C), tumor necrosis factor (D), and recurrence rate (E). The size of the nodes relates to the number of participants in that intervention type, and the thickness of lines between the interventions relates to the number of studies for that comparison. Chang-yan-ning (CYN), Xi Lei powder, Baitouweng decoction (BTWT), Shenlingbaizhu powder (SLBZS), Shaoyao decoction (SYT) stand for CYN combined with mesalazine, Xileisan combined with mesalazine, BTWT combined with mesalazine, SLBZS combined with mesalazine, and SYT combined with mesalazine, respectively.

Figure 4 Results of network meta-analysis. Bold font indicates statistical significance (P < 0.05). A: Network meta-analysis (NMA) of the clinical efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) adjuvant mesalazine in the treatment of ulcerative colitis [UC; OR (95%CI)]; B: NMA of the tumor necrosis factor of TCM adjuvant mesalazine in the treatment of UC [mean difference (MD; 95%CI)]; C: NMA of the Baron points of TCM adjuvant mesalazine in the treatment of UC [MD (95%CI)]; D: NMA of the recurrence rate of TCM adjuvant mesalazine in the treatment of UC [OR (95%CI)]; E: NMA of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire of TCM adjuvant mesalazine in the treatment of UC [MD (95%CI)]. Chang-yan-ning (CYN), Xi Lei powder (XLS), Baitouweng decoction (BTWT), Shenlingbaizhu powder (SLBZS), Shaoyao decoction (SYT) stand for CYN combined with mesalazine, Xileisan combined with mesalazine, BTWT combined with mesalazine, SLBZS combined with mesalazine, and SYT combined with mesalazine, respectively.

Figure 5 Ranking diagram of outcome indicators for each intervention. A: Clinical efficacy; B: Baron points; C: Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire points; D: Tumor necrosis factor; E: Recurrence rate. Chang-yan-ning (CYN), Xi Lei powder (XLS), Baitouweng decoction (BTWT), Shenlingbaizhu powder (SLBZS), Shaoyao decoction (SYT) stand for CYN combined with mesalazine, Xileisan combined with mesalazine, BTWT combined with mesalazine, SLBZS combined with mesalazine, and SYT combined with mesalazine, respectively.

Figure 6 Funnel plot. A-C: Funnel plots for each outcome indicator with clinical efficacy (A), tumor necrosis factor (B), and recurrence (C). Chang-yan-ning (CYN), Xi Lei powder (XLS), Baitouweng decoction (BTWT), Shenlingbaizhu powder (SLBZS), Shaoyao decoction (SYT) stand for CYN combined with mesalazine, Xileisan combined with mesalazine, BTWT combined with mesalazine, SLBZS combined with mesalazine.