Acupuncture Intervention in Ischemic Stroke: A Randomized Controlled Prospective Study
Item
Title
Acupuncture Intervention in Ischemic Stroke: A Randomized Controlled Prospective Study
Author(s)
Journal Publication
Date
2012
volume
40(4)
pages
685-693
Research Type
RCT
Keywords
Abstract
Stroke is one of the most common causes of death and few pharmacological therapies show benefits in ischemic stroke. In this study, 290 patients aged 40-75 years old with first onset of acute ischemic stroke (more than 24 hours but within 14 days) were treated with standard treatments, and then were randomly allocated into an intervention group (treated with resuscitating acupuncture) and a control group (treated using sham-acupoints). Primary outcome measures included Barthel Index (BI), relapse and death up to six months. For the 290 patients in both groups, one case in the intervention group died, and two cases in the control group died from the disease (p = 0.558). Six patients of the 144 cases in the intervention group had relapse, whereas 34 of 143 patients had relapse in the control group (p < 0.001). The mean values for BI at six months were 70.25 ± 20.37 and 57.43 ± 19.61 for the two groups, respectively (p < 0.01). Acupuncture resulted in a significant difference between the two groups for the National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), not at two weeks (7.03 ± 3.201 vs. 8.13 ± 3.634; p = 0.067), but at four weeks (4.15 ± 2.032 vs. 6.35 ± 3.131, p < 0.01). The Chinese Stroke Scale (CSS) at four weeks showed more improvement in the intervention group than that in the control group (9.40 ± 4.51 vs. 13.09 ± 5.80, p < 0.001). Stroke Specific Quality of Life Scale (SS-QOL) at six months was higher in the intervention group (166.63 ± 45.70) than the control group (143.60 ± 50.24; p < 0.01). The results of this clinical trial showed a clinically relevant decrease of relapse in patients treated with resuscitating acupuncture intervention by the end of six months, compared with needling at the sham-acupoints. The resuscitating acupuncture intervention could also improve self-care ability and quality of life, evaluated with BI, NIHSS, CSS, Oxford Handicap Scale (OHS), and SS-QOL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]; Copyright of American Journal of Chinese Medicine is the property of World Scientific Publishing Company and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
has health condition studied
Stroke
plan
>1/WK
has study population number
290
has duration
4 Weeks