Fig. 5
Forest plot of ALT at different time points with the combination therapy compared with traditional therapy. Compared with the traditional therapy group, ALT in the combination therapy group was nonsignificantly lower at 2, 12, 24, 36, and 48 weeks (P > 0.05), significantly lower at 4 weeks (P < 0.05). Since significant heterogeneity was observed among the three groups (I2 = 90%, 69%, and 62%), a random-effects model was used. In the plane rectangular coordinate system, the forest plot takes a vertical invalid line (scale of abscissa is 0) as the center, describes the effect quantity and 95% CI of each study by using multiple line segments parallel to the horizontal axis, and describes the effect quantity and confidence interval of multiple studies by using a diamond. ALT, alanine aminotransferase; CI, confidence interval; SMD, standardized mean difference