Clinical Trial On Parkinson’s Disease Treated By "the Seven Acupoints Of The Cranial Base"

Background:With the rapid increase in the incidence and the patients becoming younger, Parkinson’s disease (PD) is becoming one of the most important global healthy problems. Over the past decades, the treatment of PD has undergone tremendous changes. New drugs and methods have been introduced to improve the symptoms of PD. But till now, no method can stop or slow down the neural defects of PD patients while Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is gaining more and more focus as a form of complementary or alternative treatment."The Seven Acupoints of the Cranial Base"(SACB), which consists of DU15, BL10, GB20and GB12, was used to treat PD for about twenty years. It’s valuable to study the clinical curative effect of SACB for PD.Objective:To observe the clinical curative effect of SACB for PD.Methods:The study subjects were derived from Wangjing Hospital,120PD subjects were all of mild or middle degree, whose modified Webster Scale (mWS) is lower than25. Subjects were divided into two groups, i.e., acupuncture group and drug group. The former was treated by SACB every two days, while the latter took Madopar250mg tid, after9weeks treatment and a half year follow-up, the symptoms were evaluated by modified Webster scale. The statistical analysis was completed by Microsoft Excel and SPSS17.0.Results:Among the120subjects,6cases are dropped out, the expulsion rate is5.0%. In the114evaluated cases,55are male and59are female, whose average age is64and average PD history is5years, the mWS is5～25(average15.22) at the beginning and0～17(average7.28) at last. Acupuncture group includes61cases, while the drug group (treated by west medicine) includes58cases. Before the treatment mWS is15.77±3.575and14.58±4.050separately for the two groups. After3periods of treatment, the symptoms of most patients improved, the114cases debased their scales by1～16(average by6.64). The two groups are6.70±3.805and7.94±4.605respectively. The efficiency index is57.23%and47.51%respectively. The total efficiency is respectively86.89%and75.47%.According to the ten kinds of symptoms showed in the mWS, the PD patients in our study is of mild or middle degree, and they are divided into two groups evenly. After3periods of treatment and a half year follow-up, the patients of both two groups improved their performance of tremor and gait, while in the acupuncture group stiffness, countenance, pronunciation and expression were significantly improved. After a half year follow-up, the mWS of two groups changes to6.70and8.23respectively. Better long-term efficiency of the acupuncture group are found.Conclusion:SACB consists of seven points locating at Du Meridian, Taiyang Meridian and Shaoyang Meridian separately. They have the function of calming down the liver wind and strengthening the brain and bone. Recent studies show that the neural defects of PD patients are relying on the integrity of the resting-state network. SACB is at the very place of the cranial bottom, echoing with the resting-state network. Besides, the cerebral blood flow declined for PD patients, acupuncture can increase the blood flow significantly.From the clinical study, the efficiency of SACB for PD is proved. It leads to significant improvements for patients with PD, especially in respect of the flexibility, stiffness, countenance, pronunciation and expression. SACB has better long-term efficiency for PD patients to improve their life quality.