Objective To investigate the clinical efficacy of warming and unblocking acupuncture in treating scapulocostal syndrome.Method Eighty patients with scapulocostal syndrome meeting the inclusion criteria were allocated by simple randomization to warming and unblocking acupuncture and conventional acupuncturegroups, 40 cases each.The warming and unblocking acupuncture group received warming and unblocking acupuncture at points Tianzong(SI11), Jianjing(GB21)and Dazhui(GV14)on the affected side and affected chest Huatuo jiaji(Ex-B2)points and uniform reinforcing-reducing acupuncture at points Quchi(LI11), Hegu(LI4)and Waiguan(TE5).The conventional acupuncture group received uniform reinforcing-reducing acupuncture at the same points as those in the warming and unblocking acupuncture group after arrival of qi.Both groupswere treated once every other day, 10 days as a course, for a total of one course.Pain severity was assessed using the Pain Visual Analogue Scale(VAS) in the two groups of patients before and after treatment.Theclinical therapeutic effects were evaluated by follow-up at one month after the completion of treatment.Result The total efficacy rate was 95.0% (38/40) in the warming andunblocking acupuncture group and 80.0% (32/40) in the conventional acupuncture group; there was a statistically significant difference (P<0.05).The PainVisual Analogue Scale(VAS) score was significantly lower in the two groups of patients after treatment than before treatment; there was a statistically significant difference (P<0.05).The VAS score was decreased more in the warming and unblocking acupuncture group after treatment and at the follow-up one month after the completion of treatment (P<0.05).Conclusion Warming and unblocking acupuncture has clinically a better therapeutic effect onscapulocostal syndrome.

Objective:To observe the analgesic effect of acupuncture and to explore its central analgesic mechanism in rheumatoid arthritis rabbits.Methods:A total of 60 flap-eared white rabbits were randomly assigned into a normal control group (n=6),a model group (n=6),a body-acupuncture group (n=24),and a buccal acupuncture group (n=24).The later 2 groups were further randomly assigned into 0,0.5,1,and 2 h subgroups,with 6 cases in each group.The rheumatoid arthritis model was established by induction of eggalbumin.In the body acupuncture group,bilateral Xiyan and Zusanli were punctured for 15 s while in the buccal acupuncture group,acupuncture was applied to Xi for 15 s,with the needle retaining for 30 min.The pain threshold was detected with PL-200,taking struggle movements of rabbits as a measurement index,response latency from irradiation to struggling movements as the rabbit's pain threshold.The contents of β-endorplhin (β-EP) and cholecystokinin-8 (CCK-8) in cerebrospinal fluid were examined by radioimmunoassay.Results:Compared with the control group,pain threshold and CCK-8 levels decreased significantly (P＜0.01) and the concentration of β-EP significantly increased (P＜0.05) in the model group.The pain threshold in the body-acupuncture group and the buccal acupuncture group at 0 and 1 h (P＜0.05 or P＜0.01) increased significantly,while the β-EP and CCK-8 contents in the bodyacupuncture group and the buccal acupuncture group were significantly higher than those in the model group (P＜0.01 or P＜0.05).Both β-EP and CCK-8 contents in the buccal acupuncture group at 0 h were significantly higher than those in the body-acupuncture group (P＜0.05).Conclusion:The analgesic effect of buccal acupuncture is superior to that of body-acupuncture.Both buccal acupuncture and body-acupuncture can effectively raise the pain threshold in acute arthritis rabbits,which is closely associated with their effects in the up-regulation of β-EP and CCK-8 contents in cerebrospinal fluid.