Objective:To observe the efficacy of auricular acupoint sticking based on conventional treatment in treating pain in early-stage extremity trauma.Methods:A hundred eligible patients with acute soft tissue injury or acute closed fracture were randomized into an observation group and a control group by their admission sequence, 50 cases in each group. The two groups both received routine management including routine checking, external fixing, traction, raising up the affected limb, etc., as well as cold compress with Chinese medication (Xiao Zhong Zhi Tong Powder). In addition to the routine management, the control group was given oral administration of amidopyrine and phenacetin compound tablet, 1 tablet per dose, twice a day, which was then taken only when necessary or terminated after pain subsided. The observation group was given auricular acupoint sticking in addition to the routine management. The two groups were compared in terms of numerical rating scale (NRS) score, therapeutic efficacy and adverse reactions after pain was relieved.Results:After the intervention, the NRS scores dropped significantly in both groups (P<0.01); the NRS score in the observation group was significantly lower than that in the control group (P<0.05).The total effective rate in the observation group was superior to that in the control group (P<0.05).There were no severe adverse reactions in the two groups.Conclusion:Based on routine management, auricular acupoint sticking can produce a more significant efficacy in treating pain in early-stage extremity trauma compared to amidopyrine and phenacetin compound tablet; it can effectively reduce pain of the affected limb and prevent complications; it's easy-to-operate and safe; patients can learn and understand it easily; its efficacy is confirmed; it enhances the satisfaction degree of the inpatients. Therefore, this method is worth promoting in clinic.

Objective:To investigate the clinical efficacy of Zhang's acupoint pressure therapy plus electroacupuncture (EA) in treating post-traumatic knee osteoarthritis.Methods:A total of 98 eligible patients with post-traumatic knee osteoarthritis were divided into group A and B by the random number table, 49 cases in each group. Group A was intervened by Zhang's acupoint pressure therapy plus EA; group B was given medicinal fumigation. The clinical efficacies of the two groups were compared.Results:The markedly effective rate of group A was significantly higher than that of group B.Conclusion:Zhang's acupoint pressure therapy plus EA can produce a satisfactory clinical efficacy in treating post-traumatic knee osteoarthritis, and is worth promotion.

Objective:To observe different efficacies of low-frequency electroacupuncture (EA) on pancreatic endocrine system in male and female patients with simple obesity due to spleen deficiency-related dampness.Methods:A total of 80 simple obesity patients were assigned to a male group (n=37) and a female group (n=43). Both groups received a 30-minute low-frequency EA at Yinlingquan (SP 9), Sanyinjiao (SP 6), Zusanli (ST 36), Fenglong (ST 40), Quchi (LI 11), Tianshu (ST 25), Zhongwan (CV 12), Shuifen (CV 9), Qihai (CV 6) and Guanyuan (CV 4). The treatment was done once a day, and 10 times made up a course of treatment. Patients in both groups were treated for 2 courses. Then the changes in body mass index (BMI), serum insulin, insulin antibodies and leptin level in the two groups were observed and analyzed.Results:After treatment, the BMI, serum insulin, insulin antibodies and leptin levels were significantly reduced in both groups (P<0.01 orP<0.05); the BMI and serum insulin concentration were more significantly reduced in the male group than those in the female group (bothP<0.01); and the leptin level was more significantly reduced in the female group than that in the male group (P<0.01).Conclusion: EA can significantly regulate BMI and pancreatic endocrine system in both men and women with simple obesity; however, there is a gender difference: better effect for men in reducing BMI and serum insulin and better effect for women in reducing serum leptin level.

'Ten Acupuncture Skills' refers to ten types of needling techniques for difficult and intractable neurological diseases. It has been summarized by Prof. Gao Wei-bin, a famous traditional Chinese medicine expert in China, based upon his clinical experience for years, including neck acupuncture for bulbar palsy, neck acupuncture for laryngeal muscular paralysis, stuck needling technique for ocular muscular paralysis, electric field therapy at Jiaji (EX-B 2) points for incomplete spinal paraplegia, electroacupuncture (EA) for urination disorder, electric neck acupuncture for waking up and treating various cerebral and nuchal diseases, EA at Jiaji (EX-B 2) points for intractable hiccup, EA at Jiaji (EX-B 2) points for cervical and lumbar spondylopathy, antagonistic EA for post-apoplectic hemiplegia, and EA for facial paralysis. The ten acupuncture skills are summarized in order to guide the clinical application.

Objective:A questionnaire for the compliance with moxibustion was designed based on the 4-item Morisky scale, and the reliability and validity of the questionnaire was investigated.Methods:A modified Morisky scale was designed based on the 4-item Morisky scale for the compliance with moxibustion, and 146 patients having received moxibustion for over 2 weeks were investigated using this scale to evaluate their compliance with moxibustion; the internal equity and the construct validity of the scale were statistically analyzed.Results:The analysis of reliability showed that in item of internal consistency, the Cronbach's α was 0.72 and the split-half coefficient was 0.71, the correlation coefficients between the 4 component scores and the total score ranged 0.67-0.80, and the between-component correlation coefficients ranged 0.24-0.56; the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) totally extracted 1 common factor, and the explicable variation was 55.02%, and the loads of the 4 items were respectively 0.82, 0.81, 0.74 and 0.58.Conclusion:The reliability and validity of the modified Morisky scale for the compliance with moxibustion are acceptable, while several items need further modification and improvement in the expression and content.

The contents about the central action mechanisms of needling Zusanli (ST 36) were sorted by summarizing the relevant literatures published in the past 10 years, and it was found that: by comparing acupuncture at Zusanli (ST 36), other acupoints or sham points, most studies showed that Zusanli (ST 36) had relatively specific characteristics in the brain function response; studies on the central action mechanisms of Zusanli (ST 36) were mainly focused on sequelae of cerebral apoplexy, pain, gastrointestinal diseases, weight loss and drug addiction withdrawal and so on; acupuncture manipulations, stimulation methods, individual differences, stimulation quantity, and stimulation duration, etc. could also induce different brain function responses; acupuncture at Zusanli (ST 36) had an after-working effect, also called long-term effect, but with poor repeatability. So, it was suggested that the future studies should focus on the factors that affect the clinical efficacies and experimental results, including the compatibility effects of the acupoints, reproducibility of research results, sample size, acupuncture methods, long-term effects and disease entities.

Objective: To determine the role of intensity of plum-blossom needle tapping in treating alopecia areata.Methods: The BALB/c mice were randomized into a normal group, a control group, a roller-needle (RN) group, a mild plum-blossom needle (MP) group, and a heavy plum-blossom needle (HP) group. An area of hair was removed by external application of 8% sodium sulfide on BALB/c mice. The hair regrowth, hair follicle changes, and local inflammatory factor changes after cutaneous acupuncture were observed.Results: After treated with sodium sulfide, the hair was completely removed, the local hair follicles reached the catagen phase, and the expressions of interleukin (IL)-1α, IL-1β, IL-2, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interferon (IFN)-γ, and IL-17 were increased. Mice intervened by RN achieved the same hair growth rating as the controls but with thicker hair shafts; mice in the MP group had incomplete and uneven hair growth but thicker hair shafts; mice in the HP group didn't show hair growth. Pathological analysis revealed significant inflammatory infiltration into the local follicle bulbs and increased catagen-phase follicles in the control group, while RN and MP groups showed significantly increased anagen-phase follicles, coarser individual hairs, and obvious hair shafts. Meanwhile, most of the hair follicles in the HP group were in telogen phase and showed obvious surrounding inflammatory infiltration. RN, MP, and HP significantly down-regulated the increased IL-2, IL-1α, IL-1β, TNF-α, and IFN-γ levels (P<0.05), but didn't notably affect the increased CD34 expression (P>0.05).Conclusion: Cutaneous acupuncture with heavy stimulation intensity can inhibit hair growth in hair removal mice, while RN, with the lightest stimulation intensity, is unlikely to affect hair growth but may make hair shafts thicker and follicles larger.

Objective: To observe the effect of different moxibustion durations on rats with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and to evaluate the relationship between moxibustion amount and moxibustion efficacy.Methods: Eight rats were randomly selected as a normal group from the 40 male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats, and the other 32 rats were used to establish typeⅡ collagen-induced RA models. After successful modeling, the 32 rats were randomly divided into a model group, a moxibustion for 20 min group, a moxibustion for 40 min group and a moxibustion for 60 min group, with 8 rats in each group. Rats in the normal group did not receive modeling and moxibustion intervention; rats in the model group did not receive moxibustion after modeling; rats in the moxibustion for 20 min group, the moxibustion for 40 min group and the moxibustion for 60 min group were treated with moxibustion at Shenshu (BL 23) and Zusanli (ST 36) for 20 min, 40 min and 60 min, respectively. Six days were a course of treatment, with a total of 3-course treatments and a 1-day rest between the courses of treatment. After treatment, the serum levels of interleukin (IL)-1β and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, arthritis index (AI) scores, toe volumes and pathological score of synovitis were evaluated in the rats.Results: Compared with the normal group, the serum IL-1β and TNF-α levels, and the toe volumes in the model group were increased, and the differences were statistically significant (P<0.01), before the treatment. Compared with the model group, the serum IL-1β and TNF-α levels, toe volumes and arthritis index (AI) scores were significantly decreased in the moxibustion for 20 min group, the moxibustion for 40 min group and the moxibustion for 60 min group (P<0.05 orP<0.01 ). Compared with the moxibustion for 20 min group and the moxibustion for 60 min group, serum IL-1β and TNF-α levels, toe volumes and AI scores were decreased more significantly in moxibustion for 40 min group, and the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05 orP<0.01). There were no significant differences in serum IL-1β and TNF-α levels, AI scores and toe volumes between the moxibustion for 20 min group and the moxibustion for 60 min group (allP>0.05). The synovial histopathological improvement was the most obvious in the moxibustion for 40 min group, when the synovial histopathological changes were compared among the moxibustion for 20 min group, moxibustion for 40 min group and moxibustion for 60 min group.Conclusion: The therapeutic efficacy of moxibustion for 40 min in RA rats was more significant than that of moxibustion for 20 min and moxibustion for 60 min, indicating that the duration of moxibustion is the main factor affecting its therapeutic efficacy.

Objective: To observe the effect of moxibustion on the expressions of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and nuclear transcription factor kappa B (NF-κB) proteins in ankle joints of rats with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and to explore the anti-inflammatory mechanism of moxibustion in the treatment of RA.Methods: Adjuvant arthritis (AA) rat models were induced and used as rat models of RA. Rats were randomly divided into a normal group, a model group, a moxibustion group and a saline group. Rats in the normal and model groups were not treated; rats in the moxibustion group accepted treatment by moxibustion at Zusanli (ST 36) and Shenshu (BL 23) after modeling; rats in the saline group were injected with 0.15 mL saline to the bottom of the left hind paw and had no other treatments. Hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining was used to observe the histopathological changes of rats' ankle joints under light microscope. Immunohistochemistry was used to observe the expressions of TNF-α and NF-κB in ankle joints of rats.Results: Compared with the normal group, the rats' ankle joints in the model group showed disorganization, joint surface defect, and significantly increased mean optical density (MOD) of TNF-α and NF-κB (allP<0.05). After moxibustion treatment, rats in the moxibustion group showed repaired ankle tissues, smooth joint surface without defects, decreased MOD of TNF-α and NF-κB than those in the model group (allP<0.05). Rats in the saline group had no damage to ankle joints, while TNF-α and NF-κB were significantly different from those in the model group (P<0.05).Conclusion: Moxibustion could down-regulate the expressions of NF-κB and TNF-α protein in ankle joints of RA rats, and produce an anti-inflammatory effect to promote tissue repair.

Objective: To investigate the protective effect of moxibustion in initiating the endogenous protection information on gastric mucosa, and its relationship with the pathway of common peroneal nerve.Methods: Forty-eight Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were randomly divided into a normal group (group A), a model group (group B), a moxibustion model group (group C) and a moxibustion model plus surgery group (group D), 12 in each group. Except for group A, rats in the other groups were treated with dehydrated ethanol and aspirin to prepare gastric mucosal damage model. The rats in group B were not treated with any interventions; rats in group C received moxibustion at Zusanli (ST 36), twice a day for continuous 3 d. The rats in group D were subjected to preparing the gastric mucosal damage model after the common peroneal nerve transection, followed by moxibustion at Zusanli (ST 36). After a 3-day intervention, ulcer index (UI) in each group was observed, and the levels of gastric mucosa-related repair cytokines of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-4 (IL-4) and heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) were detected.Results: Compared with group A, the pathological changes and UI of group B were worse (P=0.000), but TNF-α in serum and tissue was changed significantly (P=0.000,P=0.002), IL-4 in serum and tissue was improved significantly (P=0.000, P=0.000). Compared with group B, TNF-α and IL-4 in group C and group D were significantly improved (TNF-α:P=0.003, P=0.016; IL-4:P=0.000,P=0.002). Compared with group C, the changes of UI in group B and group D were poor (both P=0.000); the levels of TNF-α and IL-4 in serum were significantly decreased (TNF-α:P=0.000,P=0.025; IL-4:P=0.000, P=0.034); and tissue HSP70 levels were decreased significantly (P=0.000,P=0.033).Conclusion: Zusanli (ST 36) can transmit information through the pathway of common peroneal nerve, regulate the release of gastric mucosal protective factors, and up-regulate the expression of cytothesis-related proteins, so as to achieve the effect in repairing gastric mucosa.