Chen 2008

Methods	Study design: parallel RCT Losses to follow‐up/withdrawals: None
Participants	Setting: inpatients recruited from paediatric department of general hospital Country: China Ethnicity: Chinese Inclusion criteria: primary nephrotic syndrome diagnosed on "the National Diagnostic Criteria for Nephrotic Syndrome in Children", including simple nephrotic syndrome and nephritis nephrotic syndrome Course of disease: 1 day to 26 months Number: 92 children Age (range): 2.0 to 13.7 years Gender (M/F): 57/35 Exclusion criteria: NS
Interventions	Treatment group Huangqi (astragalus) granules (oral) Dose: 7.5 g bid (< 3 years);10 g bid (3 to 6 years); 15 g bid (> 6 years) Duration: 3 months Baseline treatment including standard steroid protocol for nephrotic children Control group Baseline treatment including standard steroid protocol for nephrotic children Duration of follow‐up: 8 months
Outcomes	Nosocomial infection Diagnostic criteria: NS Adverse events
Notes	Spectrum of nosocomial infection in order of incidence: respiratory infection, UTI, gastrointestinal infection, skin infection. Spectrum of microorganisms: NS Source of funding: NS
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	High risk	The patients with nephrotic syndrome were allocated to the treatment and control groups according to the order of admission.
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	The study did not provide the information on allocation concealment.
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	The study did not provide the information on blinding.
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	There were no missing data in this study.
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Unclear risk	There was insufficient information to make judgement.
Other bias	Unclear risk	There was insufficient information to make judgement.