ObjectiveTo evaluate the relationship between the level of thoracic complete spinal cord injury(SCI) and ambulatory function wearing Reciprocating Gait Orthosis(RGO) through three dimentional gait analysis, and to explore the quantitative indicators of reconstructing walking capacity of thoracic complete SCI patients.Methods10 patients with thoracic complete spinal cord injury of lesion level from T4 to T12 who had experienced RGO gait training for at least 3 months. Three dimentional gait analysis system of Vicon Nexus 1.2 was used to test and examine the gait speed, cadence, stride length, pelvic angle of rotation, hip range of motion(ROM), crutch force, angular velocity of hip flexion and extension phases, etc. Pearson's product moment correlation coefficient and Spearman rank correlation coefficient were used to examine the relationship between the level of spinal cord injury and the kinematic and kinetic values.ResultsThe mean cadence and stride length were (37.4±2.15) steps/min and (91.6±9.09) cm. The mean hip ROM, angular velocity of hip flexion and extension phases were (42.57 °±5.43 °), (20.88 °±2.18 °)/s and (124.75 °±9.31 °)/s respectively. The gait speed, stride length, peak crutch force, hip ROM, mean crutch force and angular velocity of hip extension phase all had significant pertinence with the level of spinal cord injury.ConclusionThe limitation of hip ROM and excessive load of upper limbs mainly result in ambulatory disorder in higher thoracic complete SCI patients who should be undertaken some rehabilitation training to reduce excessive physiological load in order to improve their ambulatory capacity.

Objective To evaluate the clinical efficacy of acupuncture on sphenopalatine ganglion in the treatment of severe perennial allergic rhinitis (PAR) in a randomized controlled clinical trials. Methods A total of 81 patients with severe perennial allergic rhinitis were randomly divided into three groups: 27 in the observation group, 27 in the drug control group and 27 in the acupuncture control group. The patients in the observation group were treated with acupuncture on sphenopalatine ganglion; and the patients in the drug control group took Desloratadine; and the patient in the acupuncture control group were treated with acupuncture on Yintang (GV 29) and Yingxiang (LI 20). All the groups were treated for 4 weeks. The TNNS and VAS score system were tested before and after the treatment, and the nasal exhalation of nitric oxide (eNO) concentration level wa detected at baseline and each week's during treatments. Results After the treatment,the effective rate [80.8%(21/26)vs.64.0%(16/25),65.4%(17/26),x2=13.811]of the observation group was significantly higher than either the drug control group or the acupuncture control group (P<0.01). Compared to the score of the three group before treatment, the TNNS score was significantly lower (P<0.01) after the treatment. Compared with the drug control group, the level of eNO in nasal exhalation air (265.377 ± 36.475 ppb vs. 281.769 ±45.823 ppb vs. 295.231 ± 24.595 ppb, F=4.247) of the observation group and the acupuncture control group were significantly higher (P<0.05). Conclusions Acupuncture on the sphenopalatine ganglion can not reduce the eNO concentration level of nasal exhaled air in patients with perennial allergic rhinitis, but it can improve the symptoms of rhinitis. The clinical effect of acupuncture on the sphenopalatine ganglion was better than the desloratadine and acupuncture on GV 29 and LI 20.