| Ankylosing spondylitis is a chronic inflammation of the spine involving autoimmune diseases with chronic inflammation of the joint axis, which mainly affects the sacroiliac joints and spine facet joints; moreover, spinal rigidity may occur during late stage, accompanying with deformity and even dysfunction in severe cases. Typical clinical manifestations include low back pain, morning stiffness, lumbar and thoracic activity limitation in all directions with reduced activity. The disease usually occurs in 15 to 30-year-olds, with more male than female patients. Onset of symptoms often consist of recurrent pain and stiffness of the waist and hips, prominent morning stiffness, intermittent or alternating pain of the sciatic nerve on both legs. Other indications include aggravation of symptoms during cloudy weather or after physical exertion, whereas symptoms are alleviated with rest or when exposed to heat. With progression, the waist and hip pain would develop into persistent lower back stiffness, with loss of the natural physiological spinal curvature. So far the etiology and pathogenesis of ankylosing spondylitis are still not yet clear, and there is a lack of an effective cure.In recent years, bee acupuncture therapy has demonstrated its advantage because of its small side effects, economical cost, ease to operate and quick efficacy, it has received much attention within the medicinal community. While the bee acupuncture therapy came from a background of the folk bee needling therapy in conjunction with the TCM acupuncture theory, it has become a feature treatment of the TCM therapy, which is effective against disease such as rheumatoid, gout, ankylosing spondylitis, arthritis due to its good anti-inflammatory and analgesic effect.Objective:At present, among the traditional Chinese medicine treatment of ankylosing spondylitis, there are many studies revolves around the bee acupuncture therapy, but most of which’s diagnostic criteria are usually based on the improved 1984 New York standards. Whereas the criteria of the current study is determined according to the ASAS’(ASessment in Ankylosing Spondylitis International Society) diagnostic recommendation for the low back pain associated with ankylosing spondylitis. Combining with my mentor, Professor Li WanYao’s clinical experience in the use of bee acupuncture treatment of ankylosing spondylitis, the goal is to reduce the discomfort associated with the bee acupuncture therapy and observe the therapeutic effect of the bee acupuncture combining with the conventional electric acupuncture treatment of ankylosing spondylitis.MethodsThe study is divided into two groups:bee acupuncture combined with conventional electric acupuncture therapy group, versus the conventional therapy only group. From January 2014 to February 2015,60 valid cases of ankylosing spondylitis were collected in accordance with internationally accepted diagnostic criteria at the acupuncture clinic of the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. After one session of treatment, using ASAS20 and AS standard indicators from the national "Chinese Medicine Clinical Research Principles" as guidelines, the AS standard indicators were observed before and after treatment, such as the ASDAS, CRP, ESR, and Schober test, thoracic cage range of motion, distance of fingers to the floor, and distance of occipital bone to the wall. The Efficacy Average Index was used to objectively evaluate the overall treatment result.ResultsAfter a course of treatment, the good improvement rate and the total effective rate of the bee acupuncture therapy group was 87% and 100% respectively, which were significantly higher than that of the electric acupuncture treatment group at 10% and 73%. Before treatment, the AS patient’s general information, physics score, symptom score, and condition assessment index between the two groups was not statistically significant (P> 0.05), and were therefore, statistically comparable. Moreover, for both groups, there was a significant improvement (P<0.05) in the observed AS indicators before and after the treatment; however, the degree of improvement of the bee acupuncture group was significantly better than the electric acupuncture group (P<0.01). From the background information, the onset age was focused on the 19 to 29 years old, with high school and undergraduate students being the majority; furthermore, when compare the age of onset and the educational level, the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). In addition, when compare the patient whose parents have history of ankylosing spondylitis with its younger age of onset, the difference was also statistically significant (P<0.05). Additionally, HLA-B27 negative patients were tested with higher distance from occipital bone to the wall than that of the positive patients, the difference was also statistically significant (P<0.05).ConclusionIn this study, in the premise of reducing discomfort and adverse reactions of bee acupuncture, we observed both bee acupuncture groups and the conventional electric acupuncture group display certain therapeutic effect for controlling the ankylosing spondylitis condition. We found that bee acupuncture therapy to be the much quicker and efficient option, especially with its significant anti-inflammatory and analgesic effect. Through early treatment, we believe it could effectively control deformity. In summary, bee acupuncture is a technique that is worthy of further understanding and application due to its few side effects, ease to operate, economic cost and rapid therapeutic effect. |
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