ABSTRACT
Objective :To explore influence of acupuncture combined butylphthalide soft capsule on cognitive function and head MRI imaging in patients with vascular dementia (VD).Methods : A total of 94 VD patients treated in our hospital were randomly and equally divided into butylphthalide group (received butylphthalide soft capsules ) and combined treatment group (received acupuncture pericardial acupoint treatment based on butylphthalide group ) ,both groups received controls of blood pressure and blood lipids ,anti—infection intervention ,and continuously treated for eight weeks .Mini—mental state ex—amination (MMSE) and clinical dementia rating scale (CDR) were used to assess cognitive function ,related head MRI in—dexes ,plasma levels of somatostatin (SS) and arginine vasopressin (AVP ) were measured.Results : Compared with bu—tylphthalide group after treatment ,there was significant rise in total effective rate (78.72% vs.93.62%) , P＝0.036 ;sig—nificant rise in MMSE score [ (19.18 ± 3.24) scores vs.(21.15 ± 4.11) scores] and significant reduction in CDR score [ (1.51 ± 0.26) scores vs.(1.37 ± 0.28) scores] , P＜0.05 both ;MRI indexes :significant reduction in width of three brain ventricles [(1.12 ± 0.13) cm vs.(1.03 ± 0.19) cm] ,and significant rise in anterior angle index [ (3.08 ± 0.96) vs. (3.54 ± 0.85)] and lateral brain ventricle body width index [ (3.19 ± 0.18) vs.(3.32 ± 0.21)] ,P＜0.05 or ＜0.01 ;sig—nificant rise in plasma levels of SS [ (133.59 ± 10.11) pg／ml vs.(139.14 ± 10.56) pg／ml] and AVP [ (35.37 ± 9.12) pg／ml vs.(40.25 ± 8.08) pg／ml] in combined treatment group , P＜0.05 or ＜0.01. There were no severe adverse reactions in either group .Conclusion : Acupuncture combined butylphthalide soft capsule can significantly improve cognitive function , plasma SS and AVP levels ,inhibit brain ventricle dilation ,promote brain function recovery in patients with vascular de—mentia ,and safety is high .
