Clinical observation on ankylosing spondylitis treated with acupoint catgut embedding combined vessel pricking therapy / 中国针灸

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the efficacy and safety of acupoint catgut embedding combined with vessel pricking therapy for ankylosing spondylitis (AS).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Eighty-six cases of AS were randomly divided into an acupoint catgut embedding combined vessel pricking group (group A) and a medication group(group B), 43 cases in each group. In the group A, acupoint catgut embedding combined with vessel pricking therapy were applied at Shenshu(BL 23), Dazhu (BL 11) and Jiaji (EX-B 2) etc. The group B was treated with oral administration of Sulfasalazine (SASP). The treatment lasted for 8 weeks. Symptom score, Visual Analogue Scale(VAS), the indices of morning stiff duration, Schober test, occiput to wall distance, chest expansion, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-response protein (CRP) were compared before and after treatment between two groups.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>After treatment, the total effective rate was 83.7% (36/43) in the group A, which was superior to that of 70.0% (28/40) in the group B (P < 0.05). The improvements of all indices in two groups were more significant than those before treatment (all P < 0.01), and symptom score, Schober test score and VAS score in group A were superior to those in the group B (P < 0.01, P < 0.05). No adverse reaction occurred in the group A.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The therapeutic effect of acupoint catgut embedding combined with vessel pricking therapy for AS is preferable without any adverse effects, which is superior to that of oral administration of SASP.</p>

Observation on therapeutic effect of medicinal moxa stick moxibustion for treatment of tinea pedis / 中国针灸

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To observe therapeutic effect of using medicinal moxa stick moxibustion for treatment of tinea pedis.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>One hundred and forty-four cases were randomly divided into a medicinal moxa stick group (MMS), a moxa stick group (MS) and a Nitramisole cream group (NC) (n = 48 in each group). The moxibustion method was applied in both MMS group and MS group. The Nitramisole cream was applied in NC group. The treatment course was lasted for 21 days. The symptoms of patients with tinea pedis were recorded and scored before and after the treatment course, the effectiveness was assessed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The total effective rates were 89.59% and 81.25% in the MMS group and the MS group, respectively, with no significant difference between the two groups (P > 0.05). However, the total effective rate in these two groups were better than that of NC group (70.84%, P < 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The therapeutic effect of medicinal moxa stick moxibustion is better than that of moxa stick moxibustion or Nitramisole cream.</p>