Relationships Between Pressure Pain Thresholds and Clinical Symptoms in Acupuncture and Moxibustion Therapy. A Case of Osteoarthritis of the Knee Joints / 全日本鍼灸学会雑誌

ABSTRACT

The tender points treatment has been widely used for both treatment and diagnosis, but there have been very few studies that have examined its diagnostic usefulness. Thus, the purpose of this study was to clarify the diagnostic importance of tender points. The subject was a patient who had osteoarthritis of the knee of Meiji University of Oriental Medicine Hospital. The relationship between pressure pain thresholds (PPTs) and symptoms in osteoarthritis of the knee (painful knee motion) were evaluated with the Japanese Orthopaedic Association scale (JOA scale), a knee scale and the subject's knee pain diary (starting pain, flexion pain, walking pain and total pain Wong-Baker faces pain rating scale). After 40 acupuncture treatments, improvement was noted in the symptoms and PPTs. The changes in PPTs were related to the symptoms of the knee (flexion and walking pain). This suggests that changes in PPTs (around the knee) are a useful indicator for evaluating knee pain.