A Meta-Analysis: Coronary Heart Disease Events Associated With Estrogen Replacement Therapy In Postmenopausal Women

OBJECTIVE: To assess the effect of estrogen replacement therapy(ERT) on coronary heart disease(CHD) events in postmenopausal women by collecting and analyzing qualified randomized controlled trials(RCT), in order to provide a theoretical guidance on the clinical application.DESIGN AND RESULT: A comprehensive database search identified randomized controlled trials, analyze relative risk(RR) for CHD events and whether there are differential effects between treatment duration in less than 1 year and more than 2 years. Pooled data from 10 trials, with 17337 participants( 7542 in experimental group compared 9795 in control group). With different follow up time, showed that ERT significantly reduced CHD events in women who used estrogen for less than 1 year(RR 0.42 [confidence interval(CI), 0.20 to 0.88]), but not in women whose duration were more than 2 years(RR 0.89 [CI, 0.78 to 1.01]).CONCLUSIONS: For all participants, there was no effect of ERT on CHD events in postmenopausal women. When compared to the participants who had longer treatment, ERT reduced CHD events by 58% in shorter treatment group.