Revista Internacional de Acupuntura最新文献

The search for pregnancy in the society tends to be postponed, due to multiple factors such as personal, work, and ideological aspirations, which tend to postpone the search for pregnancy until reproductively advanced ages, which are technically no longer the most appropriate and even compatible with fertility. In this group of patients, assisted reproductive techniques such as in vitro fertilization, intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), egg and / or embryo donation become the most viable alternatives to achieve this purpose. In this case report, acupuncture and electroacupuncture were applied considering geometric patterns obtained through a 1 cun × 1 cun matrix with Zhongji (RM 3) as the central point, and 4 adjacent points and extra points in a patient under an embryo donation program for pregnancy. Acupuncture improved blood perfusion as evidenced by the pulsation rate of the uterine arteries measured by real-time Doppler flowmetry, estradiol levels as well as consequent quality of the endometrium, making it more receivable for endometrial implantation.

This article presents, visually and graphically, the results published on the conditions for which acupuncture has different levels of evidence for being a therapeutic option, according to the health technology assessment agencies that make up the REDETS (Red Española de Agencias de Evaluación de Tecnologías Sanitarias y Prestaciones del Sistema Nacional de Salud), international organizations and societies with expertise in acupuncture. The degree of evidence has been classified into 4 levels, unifying the different levels used in the work of the different organizations, and almost 300 references to systematic reviews extracted from the PubMed database have been added.

According to the World Health Organization, musculoskeletal disorders are the first reason for disability worldwide, noting that the main causes of lumbar incidents are: mechanical and non-mechanical. Electroacupuncture has been used as a treatment for pain relief, the case of a 50-year-old female patient with a diagnosis of mechanopostural low back pain treated with electroacupuncture and single-phase fixed current at points V 51 Huangming and V 53 Baohuang for 10 min in 8 sessions, evaluating the effect of said treatment using the painDETECT and Oswestry scales.

Introduction | objectives

Diabetes is deemed to be a main health problem globally, and this metabolic disorder has numerous causes. which is described as a chronic excess of glucose in the bloodstream with upsets of carbohydrate, fat, and protein metabolism resulting from a fault in insulin secretion, action, or both of them.

Methods

In order to investigate acupuncture's effect on glucose levels, 40 wistar rats were used in the current study and divided into four groups: negative control, dexamethasone with fat, dexamethasone with fat combined with acupuncture, and acupuncture only treated rats. The acupuncture was done once weekly for an 8-week period at ST-36, SP-6, and ear shenmen acupuncture points.

Results

In groups 2 and 3, rats' weights were elevated due to dexamethasone and fat administration and a significant increase in glucose levels in comparison with the control group. Additionally, fat deposition was obvious on macroscopic examination. The most important result of the current study was that the glucose levels in the group treated with dexamethasone and fat combined with acupuncture were significantly lower than those in the group treated with dexamethasone and fat only without acupuncture.

Conclusions

Although the acupuncture using ST-36, SP-6, and ear shenmen may moderately reduce glucose levels, future studies using other point combinations or stimulation methods are needed to gain better effects.

Ischemic stroke (cerebrovascular disease) manifests itself as one of the main causes of disability in adults worldwide, producing transient or permanent sequelae, mainly neurological and motor. We present the case of a 56-year-old female patient with type 2 diabetes mellitus, who has ischemic stroke sequelae with motor and neurological alterations. After 10 treatment sessions with Jiao Shunfa craniopuncture and propioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) diagonals of the upper and lower limb, a favorable evolution was obtained in the lower limbs with decreased spasticity, increased coordination, muscle strength and mobility.

Polycystic ovary syndrome is one of the main causes of infertility in women. It occurs in 4–10% of the female population of childbearing age, its main symptoms being pain during the menstrual cycle and its prolongation, as well as abnormal growth of body hair. The case of a 22-year-oldpatient with 7 follicular cysts in each ovary is presented. She is treated with acupuncture in combination with percutaneous electrical stimulation, resulting in relief of symptoms, as well as a decrease in the size of follicular cysts.

This syndrome is caused by the compression of the piriformis muscle on the sciatic nerve, causing a clinical picture such as pain in the gluteal area, tingling sensation or numbness. It is more common in women between the fourth and fifth decades of life. In Traditional Chinese Medicine it is treated as a Bi-obstructive syndrome, considered as a disorder in the energy dynamics causing stagnation of Qi or Xue in the meridians and collaterals. A longitudinal and prospective temporal sequence experimental case study was carried out, where acupuncture and TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation) were applied on the V 54 Zhi Bian and V 40 Wei Zhong points, whose main purpose was to evaluate the effect of percutaneous acupunctural neuromodulation. The patient after 8 treatment sessions obtained an 85% improvement in pain reduction and increased mobility arches over the hip joint by 95%.

Objective

The aim of the present exploratory work was to investigate if acupuncture objectively improves xerostomia and if results are sufficiently relevant to perform further studies.

Material and methods

A preliminary clinical study, randomized, non-blinded and controlled with a waiting list was designed. The initial sample of the study consisted of 33 patients with malignant neoplasia in the head and neck area, submitted to RT treatment between October 2014 and May 2015 in the Radiotherapy Service of Centro Hospitalar do Porto at Oporto (Portugal). After applying inclusion/exclusion criteria the final patient's sample consisted of 18 patients randomized in two groups (experimental and control groups). The experimental group (EG) was submitted to 8 acupuncture sessions. The control group (CG) consisted of patients of the “waiting list”. All patients were subjected to the sialometry and modified Schimer tests. The European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire, Core Module (QLQ-C30) and Head and Neck Module (QLQ-H&N35) were also used.

Results

There was a statistically significant increase in the amount of saliva (p < 0.001) and an increase in salivary flow, without stimulation (p = 0.001) and with stimulation (p = 0.011), when comparing experimental and control group. There was also an improvement in the “dry mouth sensation” in EG (p = 0.03) and a tendency to improve symptoms associated with xerostomia in the EG.

Conclusions

Despite the methodological limitations, our study suggests that the acupuncture treatment used can objectively increase salivary production (flow and quantity) and improve the quality of life of the patients. There were not detected side effects associated with acupuncture. These results are sufficiently relevant to perform further studies.

Bias is any process or action that tends to produce conclusions that systematically differ from the truth. Due to this, it is essential that both students and researchers in the area of acupuncture are fully familiar with the bias that has been found in randomized clinical trials (RCTs) of acupuncture in order to identify them in the literature or avoid them when conducting RCTs. Thus, this paper aims to provide an overview of the bias of RCTs in acupuncture. The Cochrane tool to assess the risk of bias in RCTs is ROB (risk of bias), and the ROB 2 version is currently used. Bias has been found to occur at different levels in acupuncture studies and is detailed in this paper. There is still a need to increase the quality of acupuncture RCTs to raise the level of evidence provided by such studies in this area.

Background and objectives

Acute pancreatitis causes about 230,000 of the world's hospitalizations yearly, with mortality rates for severe cases reaching 30%. Drugs are responsible for a large percentage of acute pancreatitis incidents, Based on these health risks, this study investigated the role of platelet-rich plasma and electro-acupuncture as protective therapies against tetracycline pancreatic injury effects.

Materials and methods

This study was carried out on 60 rats after they were divided into 4 subgroups (one control and three treatment groups).

Results

The histological and biochemical examination of the pancreas were shown a promising result about the protective effects of the platelet-rich plasma therapies in which the growth factors may result in the induction of pancreatic cell regeneration and decreased inflammation Also, it found that electro-acupuncture is a promising type of therapy to protect the pancreas from tetracycline toxic effects.

Conclusion

The present study's positive outcomes are hoped to contribute to a decline in the tremendous morbidity and mortality rates from drug-induced pancreatic injury around the world.