Objective To assess the quality of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and clinical controlled trials (CCTs) relevant to COPD besides chronic bronchitis and chronic pulmonary cor disease in strengthening immune published in Chinese medical journals to provide scientific basis of systematic review (SR) of regulating the immune function of COPD in Chinese herbs. Methods 54 articles with clinical controlled trials were obtained by electronic searching and handsearching, and the method for randomized allocation, blindness, multi-centres, sample sizes, diagnosis criteria, exclusion criteria, source of cases, immune markers (cellular immunity, humoral immunity, erythrocyte immunity, nonspecific immunity), the clinical outcome assessment, statistical management, course of treatment and the side effects or adverse drag reaction, follow-up were investigated and then methodologically evaluated. According to the investigation, literatures with the method for randomized allocation, correct controls, appropriate sample sizes (≥60), the nation-wide diagnosis criteria, the objective clinical outcome assessment distinct statistical method were stipulated as the high-quality ones relatively. Results Among the 54 trials, 70.4% had explicit diagnosis criteria, 18.5% with exclusion criteria, 20.4% with comparability of baseline, 37.0% with distinct statistical method. In the therapy, 63.0% were with Chinese herbs. Conclusion The selected 7 articles belong to the high quality and possibly are to be explored in Meta-analysis.
