Association between exogenous testosterone and cardiovascular events: an overview of systematic reviews

Publication date: Available online 23 September 2016 Source:The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology Author(s): Oluwadamilola Onasanya, Geetha Iyer, Eleanor Lucas, Dora Lin, Sonal Singh, G Caleb Alexander Given the conflicting evidence regarding the association between exogenous testosterone and cardiovascular events, we systematically assessed published systematic reviews for evidence of the association between exogenous testosterone and cardiovascular events. We searched PubMed, MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Collaboration Clinical Trials, ClinicalTrials.gov, and the US Food and Drug Administration website for systematic reviews of randomised controlled trials published up to July 19, 2016. Two independent reviewers screened 954 full texts from 29 335 abstracts to identify systematic reviews of randomised controlled trials in which the cardiovascular effects of exogenous testosterone on men aged 18 years or older were examined. We extracted data for study characteristics, analytic methods, and key findings, and applied the AMSTAR (A Measurement Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews) checklist to assess methodological quality of each review. Our primary outcome measure was the direction and magnitude of association between exogenous testosterone and cardiovascular events. We identified seven reviews and meta-analyses, which had substantial clinical heterogeneity, differing statistical methods, and variable methodological quality and quality of data abstraction. AMSTAR sc...
Source: The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology - Category: Endocrinology Source Type: research