Evaluating The Therapeutic Effect Of Acupuncture In Acute Ischemic Stroke Patients:a Randomized, Placebo Controlled, Study

Acupuncture therapy in traditional Chinese medicine has been verified in many disease by thousands years. Due to the feasible and relatively safe in acupuncture management, the west countries had been well document about acupuncture in medicine in last decade. The acupuncture therapy applied in post stroke functional recovery has been considered as more benefit than physical therapy only to post stroke rehabilitation. However, the effect of combined acupuncture therapy with standard medical management in acute stroke patient still remains unknown. Here we design a randomized, single blinded, prospectively control study to evaluate the therapeutic effect of acupuncture in acute ischemic stroke patients. This research provides evidence of better clinical effect of the group with intervention of acupuncture therapy in acute ischemic stroke patients than the group without received acupuncture therapy.ObjectiveTo investigate the clinical effect of acute ischemic stroke patients who receiving acupuncture therapy or not; we assign varies clinical functional scales to comparing the primary and second outcome in different time of the two groups. The possible mechanisms of acupuncture effect in acute stroke patients are also discussed and including in this study.MethodsWe collect firstly onset of acute ischemic stroke patient without underling systemic major illness, and randomized assign the collected patients into two groups as experimental (acupuncture) group, and normal control group. The two groups both treat with routine western medicine as standard stroke management. In addition, the experimental group treats as Jin’s three needle technique in the first two weeks during admission days. The dynamic change in cerebral arterial flow is evaluated by carotid color duplex sonography. The outcome measurement will evaluate by the NIH stroke scale, the Barthel index, the functional independence measure score, the Fugl-Meyer assessment (FMA), the modified Rankin scale and the stroke impact scale. We compare the all variable measurements to see if any benefit from acupuncture group than the control group.Results1. Comparing the epidemic parameters of two groups as age, gender, body mass index, risk factors related to stroke, and the score of varies functional scales initial at admission; there are no significant difference(P>0.05) according to the analyze of the results by T test and Chi-square method. It shows the samples of two groups belong to the same populations which are comparable.2. Comparing all indexes of two groups before and after the treatment, the scores in acupuncture group reveal relatively superior than control group, yet there is no significant difference(P>0.05). However, after further sub-analysis, the part score of dysarthria in NIHSS got better improving after two weeks acupuncture therapy(P<0.05).3. Comparing indexes within two groups after the treatment, there is tendency of better improving in NIHSS score after one week acupuncture therapy (P=0.06).4. Comparing indexes of the bilateral carotid duplex sonography between two groups before and after the treatment, there is tendency of higher end-diastolic flow velocity in right internal carotid artery (P=0.09) in the acupuncture group. Further sub-analysis find that the subgroup of lesion in left brain, who received acupuncture therapy with significant decreased resistant index and less pertubance of pulsatile index in right internal carotid artery(P<0.05).5. Comparing indexes of the two groups after one month’s therapeutic course, almost all functional scales in acupuncture group tend to superior than control group except FMA score. However, there is no significant difference (P>0.05) in the all index between the two groups at first four weeks’ therapeutic course. 6. Comparing indexes of the two groups after three months therapeutic course, all functional scales in acupuncture group tend to superior than control group, and there is significant difference (P<0.05) in the index of modified Rankin scale between two groups.GonclusionThis research provides evidence of better clinical effect of the group with intervention of acupuncture therapy in acute ischemic stroke patients than the group without received acupuncture therapy.