Observation on short and long-term effects of cervical spondylotic radiculopathy treated with abdominal acupuncture plus Long's bone-setting manipulation / 中国针灸

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To compare the short and long-term therapeutic effects on cervical spondylotic radiculopathy (CSR) treated with simple Long's bone-setting manipulation, abdominal acupuncture and abdominal acupuncture plus Long's bone-setting manipulation.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>One hundred and eighty cases of CSR were randomly allocated into abdominal acupuncture plus bone-setting group (combined therapy group), bone-setting group and abdominal acupuncture group, 60 cases in each group. In combined therapy group, the abdominal acupuncture and Long's bone-setting were applied in combination. Abdominal acupuncture was applied to Zhongwan (CV 12), Guanyuan (CV 4), Shiguan (KI 18), Shangqu (KI 17), etc. Long's manipulation, such as bone-setting in head-upward posture and bone-setting in head-lateral posture, was adopted. In bone-setting group and abdominal acupuncture group, Long's bone-setting manipulation and abdominal acupuncture were adopted simply and respectively. The clinical therapeutic effects were compared after 2 courses of treatment (short-term) and 1-month after treatment (long-term) among groups.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The short and long-term curative and markedly effective rates in combined therapy group were 80.7% (46/57) and 68.4% (39/57) respectively, which were better than those of 63.64% (35/55), 30.9% (17/55) in bone-setting group and 58.9% (33/56), 50.0% (28/56) in abdominal acupuncture group, separately (all P < 0.05). Moreover, the long-term curative and markedly effective rate in abdominal acupuncture group was superior to that in bone-setting group (P < 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Abdominal acupuncture plus Long's bone-setting manipulation has significant efficacy of either short or long-term on CSR, which is superior to the efficacy of either simple abdominal acupuncture or Long's bone-setting manipulation and indicates superimposed effect. Hence, it is one of the better approaches in CSR treatment.</p>

Clinical observation on acupuncture for treatment of hypertension of phlegm-stasis blocking collateral type / 中国针灸

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the clinical therapeutic effect of acupuncture on hypertension of phlegm-stasis blocking collateral type and the mechanism.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Sixty cases of hypertension were randomly divided into a treatment group and a control group, 30 cases in each group. The treatment group were treated with acupuncture at Fengchi (GB 20), Quchi (LI 11), Neiguan (PC 6), Zusanli (ST 36), Fenglong (ST 40), Taicehong (LR 3), and oral administration of Captori, and the control group only with Captoril, for 4 therapeutic courses. The changes of blood pressure, clinical symptoms, hemorheologic parameters, C-reactive protein (CRP), TC, TG, HDL and LDL levels after treatment were observed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>In the treatment group, blood pressure significantly decreased, and contents of CRP, TC, TG and LDHD decrease, the hemorheologic parameters improved and HDL level increased. Both the cumulative scores of clinical symptoms and the therapeutic effect for each symptom were improved significantly, with very significant differences as compared with those before treatment and the control group (P < 0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Acupuncture treatment has obvious effect of decreasing blood pressure, and reverses or delays the course of atherosclerosis, which mechanisms are possibly related with the function of protecting vascular endothelium.</p>