Therapy Effect Of Itraconazole In Allergic Bronchopulmonary Aspergillosis: A Meta-analysis

Objective: To evaluate the therapy effect of itraconazole in allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis(ABPA).Methords: Pubmed, EMCC, Ovid , ScienceDirect , CNKI and CBM were searched from the beginning to March 2009, and the references of eligible studies were manually seeked. Randomized controll trials (RCTs) for the therapy effects of itraconazole in allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis were eligible for inclusion. Heterogeneity was examined by Chi-square test, data was analysised by Revman 4.2 software using fixed or random effect model to pool the OR. The data were quantified by Meta-analysis,and the fail-safe number was useful to discuss the publication bias.Results: Two RCTs were included (n=84).On the basis of Jadad scale,both studies were high-quailty RCTs. It was found by meta-analysis that, compared with the control group, the treatment of itraconazole can lead to improvement in the overall responses (OR=3.81,95%CI[1.12,12.95]) and decrease the total IgE concentration(OR=3.30,95%CI[1.25,8.70]).However, the statistical significances were not found in the effects of improvement of pulmonary-function tests(OR=2.23 , 95 %CI[0.84,5.89]), decreasing the dose of corticosteroid(OR=2.67, 95 % CI[0.75 , 9.53])and increasing the exercise tolerance(OR=2.13,95%CI[0.51,8.77]).Conclusions: The treatment of itraconazole can lead to improvement in the overall responses and decrease the total IgE concentration.However, the improvement of pulmonary function tests, decreasing the dose of corticosteroid and increasing the exercise tolerance are still uncertain, which need to be confirmed by more high-quailty RCTs later.