The Impact Of Acupuncture To Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Thickness Of Glaucoma

In this paper, optical coherence tomography, vision, visual evoked potential examination and other methods were used to evaluate the protective effect of acupuncture on glaucoma optic atrophy.Objective:To investigate the efficacy of acupuncture on glaucoma optic atrophy and optic nerve protection and its possible mechanism. With acupuncture for intervention means, visual function and retinal nerve fiber layer thickness for intervention targets, the changes of eyesight, VEP (visual evoked potentials) and OCT (optical coherence tomography) before and after operation were observed to evaluated the clinical efficacy of acupuncture on glaucoma optic atrophy, optic nerve protection and nerve regeneration promoting.Methods:36cases (62eyes) of the original hair after angle-closure glaucoma in patients with optic atrophy were selected at the First Affiliated Hospital of Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine from March2013to January2014. According to the order of treatment, the36cases (62eyes) were divided into two groups randomly,18cases (32eyes) for experimental treatment,18cases (30eyes) to contrast. The control group was treated with neurotrophic agents vitamin Bl, B6and methylcobalamin tablets and mouse nerve growth factor intramuscular injection test. The experimental group was treated with traditional acupuncture (chengqi, cuanzhu, jing ming, qiuhou, sizhukong, fengchi, taiyang, baihui, zusanli, sanyinjiao, guangming, qiaoming points and the corresponding area of occipital visual cortex). Two groups were both treated for30days. Then, visual acuity, OCT and VEP were investigated and the results were treated by the SPSS15.0software for statistical analysis.Results:1.Comparing the pre-treatment, the visions of the both groups after treatment have improved. The difference of the experimental group is statistically significant(P<0.05).But the difference of the contrast group is P>0.05without statistically significant.After treatment, the difference of visions between two groups is statistically significant(P<0.05).2. Comparing the pre-treatment, P1000latency after treatment tested by VEP has improved in both groups and the difference is statistically significant (P<0.05). The difference of P1000latency between two groups after treatment is statistically significant.3.Comparing the pre-treatment, the average thickness of the disc surrounding RNEL of two groups after treatment are both P>0.05without significant difference. The difference of disc surrounding RNEL between two groups after treatment is P>0.05without significant difference.Conclusion:Acupuncture can enhance the conduction velocity of visual information and improve the vision of glaucoma optic atrophy. Meanwhile, acupuncture can prevent the apoptosis of RGCs with a significant protective effect on optic nerve. However, short courses of acupuncture treatment have no significant improvement for RGCs generation.