A comparative study on the immediate effects of electroacupuncture at Sanyinjiao (SP6), Xuanzhong (GB39) and a non-meridian point, on menstrual pain and uterine arterial blood flow, in primary dysmenorrhea patients.
Author: Ma YX, Ma LX, Liu XL, Ma YX, Lv K, Wang D, Liu JP, Xing JM, Cao HJ, Gao SZ, Zhu J.
Affiliation:
Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, China.
Conference/Journal: Pain Med
Date published: 2010 Oct
Other:
Volume ID: 11 , Issue ID: 10 , Pages: 1564-75 , Special Notes: doi: 10.1111/j.1526-4637.2010.00949.x. Epub 2010 Sep 7. , Word Count: 289
The objective of this study was to compare the effects of Sanyinjiao (SP6), Xuanzhong (GB39), and an adjacent non-meridian point on menstrual pain and uterine arterial blood flow in primary dysmenorrhea patients.
DESIGN:
The design of the study was a prospective, randomized controlled trial.
SETTING:
The setting of the study was the Shandong Institute of Medical Imaging, Jinan, China.
PATIENTS:
The patients were 52 women with primary dysmenorrhea.
INTERVENTIONS:
Women received electroacupuncture (EA) at SP6 (n=13), GB39 (n=14), and an adjacent non-meridian point (n=12), respectively, for 10 minutes when scored ≥40 on a 100-mm visual analog scale (VAS), and for 30 minutes on the next 2 days. There was no EA in the waiting list group (n=13).
OUTCOME MEASURES:
Primary outcomes were menstrual pain, resistance index (RI), and the ratio between peak systolic to end-diastolic flow velocity (S/D) in uterine arteries. Secondary outcomes included verbal rating scale (VRS) and retrospective symptom scale (RSS).
RESULTS:
The SP6 group had a highly significant reduction in VAS scores compared with the waiting list group (-23.19mm, 95% confidence interval [CI]-32.06 to -14.33, P<0.0001), GB39 group (-18.58mm, 95% CI -27.29 to -9.88, P<0.0001) and the non-meridian point group (-20.78mm, 95% CI -29.82 to -11.73, P<0.0001), respectively. A significant reduction in VRS scores was found in the SP6 group compared with the GB39 group (P=0.034) and the non-meridian point group (P=0.038). There were no significant differences of RI, S/D-values and RSS scores among the four groups (P>0.05).
CONCLUSIONS:
EA at SP6 can immediately relieve menstrual pain and minimize the influence of pain on daily life compared with GB39 and an adjacent non-meridian point. The data preliminarily show the specificity of SP6 for the immediate pain relief of primary dysmenorrhea.
Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
PMID: 21199306
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