A meta-analysis of the efficacy and safety of arotinolol in the treatment of Chinese patients with essential hypertension

Arotinolol had been used for treatment of essential hypertension. We conducted a meta-analysis to compare the efficacy and safety of arotinolol with other antihypertensive drugs in treating essential hypertension. Medical databases and review articles were screened with prespecified criteria for randomized controlled trials that reported the effects of and adverse reactions to arotinolol and other antihypertensive drugs in treating essential hypertension. Literature identified meta-analysed using RevMan4.2. Methodology quality of the selected studies was conducted using a Jadad scale. The results were that a total of 176 articles had been found of which 6 were finally included for meta-analysis. The meta-analysis compared the efficacy and safety of arotinolol with other common antihypertensive drugs, including enalapril, felodipine, imidapril, cilinidipine, metroprolol and atenolol. Results indicated that there were no evidence for differences in safety and efficacy. Homogeneity test, X-2 = 4.41, df = 7, P = 0.73 (efficacy); X-2 = 2.96, df = 4, P = 0.56 (safety); combined test, Z = 0.64 (P = 0.52), OR = 1.17, 95% confidence interval (CI) (0.72, 1.85) (efficacy); Z = 1.75 (P = 0.08), OR = 0.60, 95% CI (0.34, 1.06) (safety). There was no significant difference in efficacy and safety between arotinolol and other common antihypertensive drugs used for treating essential hypertension.