Objective To investigate the clinical efficacy of eye acupuncture plus linguistic competence training in treating post-stroke aphasia.Methods Sixty patients with post-stroke aphasia were randomly allocated to groups A, B and C, 20 cases each. Group A received eye acupuncture plus linguistic competence training; group B, eye acupuncture alone; group C, linguistic competence training alone. The linguistic competence scores, the aphasia quotient (AQ) score and the Chinese Functional Communication Profile (CFCP) score were recorded in the three groups before and after treatment. The clinical therapeutic effects were compared between the three groups.Results There were statistically significant pre-/post-treatment differences in the linguistic competence scores, the AQ score and the CFCP score in the three groups (P<0.01,P<0.05). There were statistically significant post-treatment differences in the linguistic competence (spontaneous speech, spoken language understanding and naming) scores, the AQ score and the CFCP score between groups A and C (P<0.05). The total efficacy rate was 95.0% in group A, 80.0% in group B and 85.0% in group C. There was a statistically significant difference in the total efficacy rate between group A and group B or C (P<0.05).Conclusion EYE acupuncture plus linguistic competence training is an effective way to treat post-stroke aphasia.

BACKGROUND: Gong's nonverbal intelligence test(GNIT) is a nonverbal and cross-cultural test of intelligence designed primarily to suit the use in the minority groups and those with linguistic difficulties by Professor Gong Yao-xian. At present 5 unified norms of the minority groups as well as norms of Chinese Han children and adult aged below 55 years have been developed, but the norms for the elderly above 56 years of age are not available. Nonverbal intelligence test is especially suitable for the elderly and has therefore wide applications.OBJECTIVE: To establish regional norms of the GNIT for healthy elderly people above 56 to enable the completion of nonverbal intelligence test norms suitable for each age groups.DESIGN: A controlled study with stratified sampling of healthy elderly retirees over 56 years of age in the community.SETTING: Department of Physiology in Medical College of Henan University of Science and Technology; Center for Psychology, Xiangya Second Hospital,Central South University.PARTICIPANTS: Healthy elderly retirees above 56 years of age in Luoyang cityor the counties were selected on a voluntary basis with stratified sampling according to the proportion of each region. The selected subjects aged between 56 and 101 years, and 8 age groups were divided at the interval of 5 years(about 200 people in each age group). Totally 1 460 subjects were selected, including 679 male and 781 female subjects.METHODS: With the instruments and manual of GNIT, the subjects were tested for color identification, classification, blank-filling with numbers or graphs, characters and encoding tests. The results were original scores, scale scores and intelligence quotient.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The norms of GNIT for the elderly above 56 years of age.RESULTS: The norms included three scores, namely the original scores, scale scores and standard deviation scores. To test of reliability and validity of the norms, retest was performed in 40 1 or 2 weeks after the initial test, resulting in the test-retest reliability coefficient ranging from 0.59 to 0. 89, with the total test-retest reliability coefficient of 0.83. The correlation coefficients the original scores between the subtests ranged from 0. 35 to 0. 63, and the correlation coefficients between the standard deviation scores of the verbal intelligence quotient(VIQ), performance intelligence quotient(PIQ) and full intelligence quotient(FIQ) of Wechster intelligence scale for children(WAIC-RC) were 0.43,0.51 and 0.54 respectiyely, based on a study of a sample of 50 elderly subjects.CONCLUSION: Primary regional norms of GNIT for elderly subjects above 56 years of age have been established to measure mainly the perception and reasoning factors loaded with also visual motor psychological factors and abstract summary factors, with satisfactory reliability and validity equivalent to similar tests.