Electrical response grading versus House-Brackmann scale for evaluation of facial nerve injury after Bell's palsy: a comparative study / 中西医结合学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>There are no convenient techniques to evaluate the degree of facial nerve injury during a course of acupuncture treatment for Bell's palsy. Our previous studies found that observing the electrical response of specific facial muscles provided reasonable correlation with the prognosis of electroacupuncture treatment. Hence, we used the new method to evaluate the degree of facial nerve injury in patients with Bell's palsy in comparison with the House-Brackmann scale. The relationship between therapeutic effects and prognosis was analyzed to explore an objective method for evaluating Bell's palsy.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The facial nerve function of 68 patients with Bell's palsy was assessed with both electrical response grading and the House-Brackmann scale before treatment. Then differences in evaluation results of the two methods were compared. All enrolled patients received electroacupuncture treatment with disperse-dense wave at 1/100 Hz for 4 weeks. After treatment, correlation analysis was conducted to find the relationship between electrical response and therapeutic effects or prognosis.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Checking consistency between electrical response grading and House-Brackmann scale: Kappa value 0.028 (P = 0.578). Correlation analysis: the two methods were correlated with the prognosis, and electrical response grading (rER = 0.789) was better than the House-Brackmann scale (rHB = 0.423).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Electrical response grading is superior to the House-Brackmann scale in efficacy and reliability, and can conveniently assess the degree of facial nerve injury. The House-Brackmann scale is suitable for the patients with mild facial nerve injury, but its evaluation quality for severe facial nerve injury is poor.</p>

Application of grading evaluation on facial nerve function of Bell's palsy treated with electroacupuncture / 中国针灸

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the correlation of facial nerve injury degree with facial contraction degree induced by electric stimulation in the treatment of Bell's palsy with electroacupuncture, and the significance in elec tric reaction grading evaluation.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Sixty-eight cases of Bell's palsy were enrolled. The positive and negative electrodes of the acupuncture treatment apparatus were attached to the needle handles at the 3 groups of points, named Taiyang (EX-HN 5)-Yangbai(GB 14), Xiaguan (ST 7)-Quanliao (SI 18) and Heliao (LI 19)-Jiachengjiang (Extra). The disperse-dense wave was applied. According to the severity of local muscle contraction after needling, the electric reaction was divided into 4 grades, named superior, moderate, poor and no reaction. After acupuncture and electroacupuncture, the efficacy was evaluated in accordance with the different electric reaction grades.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The curative rate was 100.0% (44/44) in patients with superior electric reaction, was 100.0% (7/7) in patients with moderate electric reaction, was 18.2% (2/11) in patients with poor electric reaction and was 0 (0/6) in patients with noelectric reaction. The difference was significant statistically in comparison of 4 groups (P<0.01). The superiority correlation presented between the efficacy and electric reaction grade (P< 0.001). The higher the superiority of electric reaction grade was, the better the efficacy was. The difference in the efficacy among different electric reaction grades was significant statistically (P<0.001). And the course of treatment was the shortest for those with the high superiority of electric reaction.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The reaction grade of electric stimulation is conform to the facial nerve injury grading in Bell's palsy. The contraction degree of facial mimetic muscle induced by electroacupuncture stimulation is closely correlated with severity of disease. Based on the electric reaction, the facial nerve injury severity can be understood generally and the prognosis be judged.</p>

Effect of scalp point penetration needling on sleep quality and sleep structure of insomnia patients / 中国针灸

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To observe the improving effect of scalp point penetration needling on sleep quality and sleep structure for insomnia patients.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Sixty-six cases of insomnia were randomly divided into a scalp point penetration needling group (observation group, 32 cases) and a routine acupuncture group (control group, 34 cases). The observation group was treated with Houshencong (EX-HN 1) penetrating to Qianshencong (EX-HN 1) and Xinhui (GV 22) penetrating to Shenting (GV 24) etc.; Baihui (GV 20), Anmian (EX- HN 22) and Neiguan (PC 6) etc. were selected in control group. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and micro-sensitive mattress sleep monitoring system were used to observe the sleep quality and sleep structure of the patients before and after treatment, respectively.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The completely improved rate of the sleep quality of 65. 6%(21/32)in observation group was superior to that of 35.3 (12/34) in control group (P < 0.05). There were significant differences between two groups in latency of falling asleep, total time of sleep, time of deep sleep stage and more than 5 min awakening times of sleep structure after treatment (all P < 0. 01), the observation group was superior to control group.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The scalp point penetration needling has more significant effects for improving the sleep quality and sleep structure of insomnia patients than the routine needling.</p>