Preclinical Evidence of Acupuncture on infarction size of Myocardial ischemia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Animal Studies

Review question / Objective: Whether acupuncture is effective for infarction size on myocardial ischemia rat models. Condition being studied: Myocardial ischemia is a typical pathological condition of coronary heart disease (CHD), which has been a global issue with high incidence and mortality. Myocardial infarction caused by myocardial ischemia leads to cardiac dysfunction, and the size of myocardial infarction also determines the recovery and prognosis of cardiac function. Acupuncture, a long history of traditional Chinese medicine, is widely used to treat symptoms like thoracalgia and palpitation. Many researches based on rat experiments have shown that acupuncture affects infarction size, cardiac function, myocardial enzyme or arrhythmias severity on myocardial ischemia models; nevertheless, few literatures have systematically reviewed these studies, assessing the risk of bias, quality of evidence, validity of results, and summarizing potential mechanisms. A systematic review of animal studies can benefit future experimental designs, promote the conduct and report of basic researches and provide some guidance to translate the achievements of basic researches to clinical application in acupuncture for myocardial ischemia. Therefore, we will conduct this systematic review and meta analysis to evaluate effects of acupuncture on infarction size on myocardial ischemia rat models.