Clinical efficacy of acupuncture combined with herbs-partitioned moxibustion meridian sinew node treating limb muscle contracture and fatigue after stroke / 国际中医中药杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate clinical efficacy of acupuncture combined with herbs-deparated moxibustion meridian sinew node to treat the contracture and fatigue of limb muscle after stroke.Methods Seventy two patients with limb faigure & muscle contracture after stroke in conformity with the incorporation standard were randomly divided into a treatment group and a control group.The patients in the treatment group were subjected to the acupuncture combined with herbs-deparated moxibustion meridian sinew node, and patients in the control group were subjected to conventional acupuncture and infrared therapy.The activity of daily living scale (ADL), simplified Fugl-Meyer movement function score, neurological impairment degree score, modified Ashworth scale (MAS) score, clinical spasticity index (CSI), patient-reported outcomes (PRO) of patients in both groups before treatment and after 4 weeks of treatment were observed.Clinical efficacy was evaluated.Results The total effective rate of the treatment group was significantly better than the control group (86.1％ vs.55.6％;x2=8.134, P=0.004).The limb spasm I level improvement of patients in the treatment group (30.6％ vs.8.3％, X2=4.345) was better than that in the same group before treatment (P＜0.05).ADL score of patients in the treatment group after treatment increased (58.37 ± 10.68 vs.54.25 ± 9.57, t=1.720) when compared to that before treatment, simplified Fugl-Meyer score of patients in the treatment group after treatment increased (75.25 ± 12.54 vs.66.36 ± 10.99, t=3.199) when compared to that before treatment, the rise condition occurred, the score of neurologic impairment degree of patients in the treatment group hit (7.47 ± 1.06 vs.11.24 ± 2.19, t=9.290) when compared to that before treatment, decrease conditions of patients in the treatment group were better than those of patients in the control group (P＜0.05).The tendon reflex in CSI index of patients in the treatment group after treatment increased (2.71 ± 0.22 vs.3.08 ± 0.24, t=6.819) when compared to that before treatment, the muscle tension of patients in the treatment group increased (4.34 ± 0.32 vs.5.83 ± 0.35, t=18.852) when compared to that before treatment, the clonus of patients in the treatment group after treatment increased (1.22 ± 0.28 vs.1.89 ± 0.35, t=8.969) and PRO score of patients in the treatment after treatment increased (19.22 ± 4.47 vs.228.27 ± 4.94, t=8.151) were significantly lower than that of patients in the control group (P＜0.05).Conclusion The acupuncture combined with herbs-deparated moxibustion meridian sinew node can improve the movement and life of patients with stroke and muscle weakness & contracture, and its efficacy is better than conventional acupuncture combined with acupuncture and infrared therapy.