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Previous studies have confirmed that acupuncture for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) provided an additional benefit over usual care alone. Therefore, we performed a multicenter, randomized, sham-controlled trial to assess the efficacy and safety of acupuncture versus sham acupuncture for refractory IBS in patients in the context of conventional treatments. Patients in the acupuncture and sham acupuncture groups received real or sham acupuncture treatment in 3 sessions per week for a total of 12 sessions. The primary outcome was a change in the IBS-Symptom Severity Scale (IBS-SSS) score from baseline to week 4. A total of 521 participants were screened, and 170 patients (85 patients per group) were enrolled and included in the intention-to-treat analysis. Baseline characteristics were comparable across the two groups. From baseline to 4 weeks, the IBS-SSS total score decreased by 140.0 (95% CI: 126.0 to 153.9) in the acupuncture group and 64.4 (95% CI: 50.4 to 78.3) in the sham acupuncture group. The between-group difference was 75.6 (95% CI: 55.8 to 95.4). Acupuncture efficacy was maintained during the 4-week follow-up period. There were no serious adverse events. In conclusion, acupuncture provided benefits when combined with treatment as usual, providing more options for the treatment of refractory IBS., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: Acupuncture has been used as an adjuvant therapy for Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, systematic reviews (SRs) and meta-analyses (MAs) have reported inconsistent results and unknown quality. This overview aimed to summarize the current SRs/MAs to provide evidence for the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture in the treatment of COPD., Methods: SRs/MAs were searched via eight databases from their establishment to December 31, 2023. The methodological quality was assessed by A Measurement Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews 2 (AMSTAR 2). The risk of bias was assessed using the Risk of Bias in Systematic Review (ROBIS) tool. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses for Acupuncture (PRISMA-A) to evaluate the reporting quality. The Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) was used to determine the strength of evidence. In addition, we also conducted an analysis of the acupuncture points used in the primary RCTs., Results: Twenty-two SRs/MAs were included in this overview. Based on the assessment using AMSTAR 2, nineteen SRs/MAs were "critically low". Eight SRs/MAs had a low risk of bias. Based on PRISMA-A, the reporting completeness of eighteen SRs/MAs were more than 70%. As for GRADE assessment, only three outcome measures were of high quality. COPD patients can benefit from moxibustion, acupoint application, acupoint catgut embedding, manual acupuncture, and electroacupuncture, as indicated by effectiveness in measures including lung function, 6MWD, mMRC, CAT, and acute exacerbation. In addition, the efficacy of TENS needed to be further demonstrated. The commonly used acupuncture points in the RCTs include BL13, BL23, and EX-B1., Conclusion: Evidence from SRs showed that acupuncture is beneficial to lung function, acute exacerbation, 6MWD, mMRC and CAT. For SGRQ and brog scale, acupuncture should be used selectively, but this finding should still be taken with caution., Competing Interests: The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work., (© 2024 Zeng et al.)

Background: The utilization of acupuncture as a therapeutic intervention for the management of postoperative nausea and vomiting has experienced a notable increase in its popularity, and the purpose of this analysis is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the level of concern within the academic discipline and the main contributors and their partnership, as well as to identify research focal points and trends., Methods: A comprehensive search was carried out to identify relevant articles on the topic of acupuncture therapy for PONV in the Web of Science and China National Knowledge Internet. The search spanned from January 1, 2011, to June 6, 2023. The annual publications were count to see the degree of scholarly attention devoted to the discipline and how it has changed over time. A statistical analysis of article distribution across various journals was conducted to serve a rough indicator for assessing the quality of articles. And a bibliometric analysis was conducted using the software CiteSpace to visually analyze various aspects of the literature. Analyze authors, institutions and countries to identify the main contributors and their collaborative relationship; and analyze keywords and references to explore research hotspots and trends., Results: This study examined a comprehensive collection of 819 articles focused on acupuncture therapy for PONV, demonstrating a varying upward trend in the quantity of publications. Notably, the most productive author and institution were identified as Zheng Man and Guangzhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, respectively. While China had the highest number of publications, the United States held a greater prominence in this specific field. Collaboration among contributors was found to be weak. High-frequency keywords in the publications included "transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation," "electroacupuncture," "pain," and so forth. The literature with the highest citation count pertained to "Stimulation of the wrist acupuncture point PC6 for preventing postoperative nausea and vomiting," while the article with the highest centrality was "Consensus Guidelines for the Management of Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting." Several large clusters obtained from the references are also included "postoperative pain," "transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation". Nothing pertaining to mechanism study was found in the analysis results., Conclusion: The utilization of acupuncture for the treatment of postoperative nausea and vomiting has been gaining increasing recognition, although there remains room for improvement in the quality of research conducted in this area. Chinese authors and institutions have emerged as significant contributors to this field, while the United States has demonstrated greater proficiency in fostering collaborative efforts. It is imperative to enhance collaboration among these contributors. The current focal points of acupuncture for PONV encompass pain management, electroacupuncture, auricular acupuncture, and transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation. Additionally, TEA and enhanced recovery after surgery have been identified as the forefronts of research in this particular domain. In addition, there is still much room for research in the aspect of mechanism and insurance coverage. This study provides an in-depth perspective on acupuncture for PONV, which offers reference material for clinicians with rational choice of therapeutic scheme, educators with hot topics, and researchers with valuable research directions., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest All authors disclosed no relevant relationships., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

The author summarizes the current situation of the development of the talent team in the acupuncture and tuina industry, discusses the trend of talent development, analyzes the exist problems, and proposes relevant suggestions. The author considers that the overall size of the talent team, and the scale of clinical and scientific research talent in the acupuncture and tuina industry have increased significantly, especially in the development of high-end talents among the Chinese medicine talents. The characteristics of the training scale of acupuncture and tuina in the education of TCM colleges and universities are as follows: the growth rate at the specialist level is higher than that of undergraduates, the scale of professional masters declined, and the scale of doctoral levels remain stable. In order to meet the growing demands of the industry for talented people and the requirements for the rapid development of the industry itself, efforts should be made to further increase the construction of acupuncture and moxibustion talents, and to strengthen the training of basic clinical talents and the construction of high-end scientific research talents.

Objective: To analyze the effects of acupuncture on the level of atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP) in adrenal gland and the content of corticosterone (CORT) in plasma in rats withchronic emotional stress anxiety, and to explore the partial action mechanism of acupuncture on anxiety disorder., Methods: Thirty-two healthy Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats, after 7 days of feeding and domestication, were randomly divided into a blank group (10 rats), a model group (11 rats) and an acupuncture group (11 rats). The rats inthe model group and acupuncture group were treated with unpredictable chronic emotional stress (CES) method toestablish the model of anxiety. Rats in the acupuncture group were treated with acupuncture at "Neiguan" (PC 6)and "Shenmen" (HT 7), once every other day, 30 minutes each time. The model establishment and treatment lasted 15 days. Rats in the blank group were treated with identical immobilization but no treatment was given. Theelevated plus maze was used to test the behavioral changes of rats with anxiety; the level of CORT in plasma wasdetected by ELISA, and the expression level of CNP and ANP in adrenal cortex and medulla was detected by immunohistochemical method., Results: (1) The percentage of open-arms time in total time (OT%) in elevated plus maze in the model group was significantly lower than that in the blank group (P<0. 05); the OT% in the acupuncture group was significantly higher than that in the model group (P<0.01). (2) The content of CORT in plasma in the model group was higher than that in the blank group (P<0. 05), while that in the acupuncture group was significantly lower than that in the model group (P<0. 05). (3) The expression of ANP in adrenal medulla and cortex in the model group was lower than that in the blank group (P<0. 01), while the expression of CNP in adrenal medulla and cortex in the model group was higher than that in the blank group (P<0. 01)., Conclusion: The effects of acupuncture against anxiety are likely to be related to the regulation on the expression of ANP and CNP in adrenal medulla, affecting the release of CORT and inhibition on the activity !f hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA axis).

Anxiety disorder is one of the most common mental disorders and seriously impairs the physical and mental health of patients. Due to the efficacy of acupuncture for tranquilization, acupuncture displays its unique advantage on the treatment of anxiety disorder, but the relevant biological mechanism has not been elaborated. The modern medicine study has proved that the heart and brain have their own independent natriuretic peptide (NP) system. The dysfunction of ANP and its receptor are closely related to the occurrence of anxiety disorder. The ANP acts on anti-anxiety. Hence, focusing on the three aspects, named the anti-anxiety effect of acupuncture based on its tranquilizing effect, the anti-anxiety effect of ANP and the positive regulation of acupuncture on NP, the mechanism on ANP and its receptor was explored in anti-anxiety with acupuncture based on tranquilizing effect, and the idea was put forward on that the anti-anxiety effect of acupuncture was possibly based on its action of tranquilization through regulating the ANP and its receptor. As a result, it is expected to provide the theoretic support for the mechanism study on anti-anxiety with acupuncture based on its tranquilizing effect.

Objectives: Acupuncture is a commonly used therapy for treating functional dyspepsia (FD), although the mechanism remains unclear. The objectives of this study were to investigate the differences in cerebral glycometabolism changes evoked by acupuncture and sham acupuncture and to explore the possible correlations between brain responses and clinical efficacy., Methods: In all, 72 FD patients were randomly assigned to receive either acupuncture or sham acupuncture treatment for 4 weeks. Ten patients in each group were randomly selected for fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography computed tomography scans to detect cerebral glycometabolism changes. The Nepean Dyspepsia Index (NDI) and Symptom Index of Dyspepsia (SID) were used to evaluate the therapeutic effect., Results: (i) The clinical data showed that after treatment the decrease in SID score in the acupuncture group was significantly greater than that in the sham acupuncture group (P<0.05). The increase in NDI score between the two groups did not differ (P>0.05), and only the improvement in NDI score in the acupuncture group was clinically significant. (ii) The neuroimaging data indicated that after treatment the acupuncture group showed extensive deactivation in cerebral activities compared with the sham acupuncture group. In the acupuncture group, the deactivations of the brainstem, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), insula, thalamus, and hypothalamus were nearly all related to the decrease in SID score and the increase in NDI score (P<0.05, corrected). In the sham acupuncture group, the deactivations of the brainstem and thalamus tended to be associated with the increase in NDI score (P<0.1, corrected)., Conclusions: Acupuncture and sham acupuncture have relatively different clinical efficacy and brain responses. Acupuncture treatment more significantly improves the symptoms and quality of life of FD patients. The more remarkable modulation on the homeostatic afferent network, including the insula, ACC, and hypothalamus, might be the specific mechanism of acupuncture.

Functional dyspepsia (FD) is a common gastrointestinal disorder with multiple pathogenic mechanisms seen in clinical practice, and acupuncture may potentially be an alternative therapy for it. In order to investigate the biological effects of FD and the effect of acupuncture on metabolism, (1)H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based metabonomic techniques have been used to compare the plasma metabolic profiles of six female FD patients with those of six female healthy control subjects. Plasma metabolic profiles of FD patients treated by acupuncture at the Foot-Yangming Meridian were also collected and compared. Data obtained from NMR spectroscopy were subjected to principal components analysis (PCA). The results show that there are relatively higher levels of glucose, acetate, high-density lipoprotein (HDL), and phosphatidylcholine (PtdCho), and lower levels of lactate, leucine/isoleucine, N-acetyl glycoprotein (NAc), and low-density lipoprotein/very low-density lipoprotein (LDL/VLDL) in FD patients than in healthy controls. Acupuncture treatment of FD patients significantly changed the levels of leucine/isoleucine, lactate and glucose, and slightly changed lipids level towards those of the healthy controls, demonstrating its therapeutic effects on the relief of FD symptoms. Due to the limited number of subjects, the present work is just a proof-of-principle study and further researches with larger number of subjects are needed. Our work shows the potential of an NMR-based metabonomic approach in the study of biological effects of acupuncture.

This study was carried out to defect the effects of acupuncture and moxibustion therapy on the proliferation and differentiation of neural stem cells in the olfactory bulb of senescence-accelerated mouse P8. Immunofluorescence double staining methods(BrdU/Nestin, BrdU/MAP-2 and BrdU/beta-tubulin III) were used. The results show that both acupuncture and moxibustion could improve proliferation of neural stem cells, but only moxibustion could induce differentiation of neural stem cells into neuron.

Objective: To confirm the clinical therapeutic effects of acupuncture and moxibustion on Bell's palsy., Methods: 480 cases from 4 hospitals were enrolled for this study, among whom 439 cases completed the whole course of the study. The patients were randomly divided into the following 3 groups, a control group(treated with prednisone, vitamin B1, vitamin B12 and dibazol), an acu-moxibustion group (treated with filiform needle plus moxibustion), and a basic treatment plus acu-moxibustion group (treated with oral medicine like those in the control group plus acupuncture, and with moxibustion like in the acu-moxibustion group). The whole treatment course lasted 4 weeks. The therapeutic effects were evaluated according to the symptoms and signs, House-Brackmann grading scale and facial disability indexes(FDI)., Results: All the 4 centers (hospitals) completed this study well, with no statistically significant difference found among the 4 centers in therapeutic effects. The patients with different conditions were well distributed in the 3 groups, thus the basic general data were comparable (P > 0.05). The therapeutic effects of the two treatment groups were better than the control group (respectively P < 0.05 and P < 0.01), and it was the best in the acu-moxibustion group (P < 0.01)., Conclusion: Acupuncture and moxibustion may exert definite therapeutic effects on Bell's palsy, better than that of the basic treatment group or the basic treatment plus acu-moxibustion group.