title: [Impacts of tongnao huoluo acupuncture therapy on BI and NIHSS of patients with acute cerebral infarction].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the effect of Tongnao Huoluo Acupuncture (THA) therapy on acute cerebral infarction (ACI).
  
  
  METHODS
  Adopting multi-centered, randomized and controlled method, 397 ACI patients from 10 hospitals subjected to the study were treated according to the initiating time (IT) of disease during hospitalization: the 138 patients of stage-1 with IT < or =6 h, were randomly assigned to three groups, treated respectively with THA (Group A), thrombolysis with urokinase (Group B) and Batroxobin (Group C); the 140 patients of stage-2 with IT within 6-48 h, and 119 patients of stage-3 with IT within 48 h-14 d were randomly assigned to three groups, treated respectively with THA (Group D) body acupuncture (Group E), and conventional treatment (Group F). Therapeutic effect was evaluated by NIHSS scores estimated at the day 1, 3, 7, 14, 28 and 90 of treatment, and the Barthel Index (BI) measured at day 14, 28 and 90.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Effect in Group A was insignificantly different from that in Group B (P > 0.05), but was different from that in Group C significantly (P < 0.01). At day 90, the percentage of patients with high BI (HBI%, patients with BI >95%) was insignificantly different in Group A vs. B (P > 0.05), but was significantly different in Group A vs. C (P < 0.01). Comparisons between Group D, E and F showed that the therapeutic effect in Group D was equivalent to that in Group E (P < 0.05), but better than that in Group F (P < 0.01), and HBI% in Group D was superior than that in the other two groups (P < 0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  THA therapy shows favorable effects in reducing the crippling rate and improving the living capacity of ACI patients.
authors: Department of Cerebral Diseases, Third Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing TCM University. ljydoctor@yahoo.com.cn
authors: Ji-ying
authors: JY
authors: Li
authors: Yang
authors: Y
authors: Zhao
authors: Zhen-nian
authors: ZN
authors: Zhang
mesh_terms: D015670:Acupuncture Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002544:Cerebral Infarction / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016896:Treatment Outcome