Acupoint Iontophoresis Evaluation Of The Efficacy Of Traditional Chinese Medicine Cyclomastopathy Treatment

1.BackgroundHyperplasia of the mammary gland (HMG) has the highest occurrence rate for mammary gland diseases among women of child-bearing age. HMG shows a trend where new occurrences increase annually,with decreasing age of first diagnosis. Modern western medicine believes that HMG occurrence is closely related to endocrine disorder and prescription of steroids and surgery are the main treatment measures employed. Traditional Chinese medicine believes the causes of this illness to be liver stagnation phlegm (肝郁痰凝) and vascular imbalances (冲任失调).The common remedies are herbal medicine,acupuncture,cupping,scrapping, moxibustion, massage and the external use of herbal medicine. With the advancement of modern technology and greater understanding of Chinese medicine percutaneous absorption theory, the use of traditional external applications of TCM and modern advanced medical instruments are combined into iontophoresis of Chinese herbs, and this has been introduced in current treatment of HMG.Although there has been some research about TCM iontophoresis treatment of HMG done in clinical settings,however,due to the limitations of sample size,and with no proper focus on treatment of specific symptoms, compounded with the lack of standardized design, parallel-group study, and no forward curative effect evaluation,this technology is not widely used in clinical treatment.2. ObjectiveTo observe the effects of TCM ion therapy treatment on HMG patients. The standard used for determining treatment effectiveness is a scoring system regarding luteal phase breast soreness and breast lumps, while secondary standards used include general symptoms,ultrasound doppler imaging results and a safety scoring system.Furthermore,the comparison is made against target groups that are given either only ion therapy or only TCM external application to observe the effects of the treatment of TCM ion therapy on HMG in a non-biased way, and to find out the active mechanism at work. We also recorded and analyzed any accident or unfortunate events that happened during the treatment so as to achieve a new treatment and analysis that combines both modern technology and TCM in treating HMG.3.MethodA total of165HMG patients were selected through the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine Oriental Hospital’s acupuncture department and randomly categorized into3groups (A, B and C).The patients in Group A were subjected to iontophoretic treatment with pads soaked in TCM placed at Wuyi, Rugen and Qimen acupoints; the patients in Group B were subjected to iontophoretic treatment with pads soaked in placebo solution placed at the same acupoints; and the patients in Group C were subjected to pads placed at the the same acupoints but without iontophoretic treatment.All3groups were enrolled at the start of the luteal phase of their menstrual cycle and were to complete15sessions of treatment, each treatment session lasting20minutes, till the next month of their respective luteal phase of their menstrual cycle. The therapy was not carried out during menstruation. Follow ups were carried out on patients who have recovered from pain after one menstrual cycle.4.Results165patients were initially inducted into this study; while subsequently12cases withdrew from the study, there was52patients in the iontophoresis of Chinese herbs group (Group A),50patients in the iontophoresis of placebo group (Group B) and51patients in Chinese herbs treatment without iontophoresis group (Group C). Group A patients saw a26.92%rate of successful treatments and78.84%rate of effective treatments;Group B patients saw a2.0%rate of successful treatments and30%rate of effective treatments; Group C patients saw a5.88%rate of successful treatments and49.01%rate of effective treatments.Both the effective rate and successful rate in iontophoresis of Chinese herbs group are better than the other two groups and there was statistical significant difference between the three groups (P<0.05).In terms of improving systemic symptoms,all3groups showed similar results (P>0.05).iontophoresis of Chinese herbs group showed decreased scores in ultrasound results and reduced widths of mammary glands. We also demonstrated that the treatment could reduce the number of days on which pain was felt; the value of the maximum pain score recorded and the value of present pain score given by the patient. The effect of this treatment was significantly better than the other two groups(P<0.05).All3types of treatment were reported to be unable to decrease the diameter of mammary gland (P>0.05).The iontophoresis of Chinese herbs group is better than the other two groups in the long-term efficacy(P<0.05).5.ConclusionIontophoresis of Chinese herbs had notable results in improving breast pain and breast lump. It has clear, unmistakable treatment value; and is a comfortable and safe TCM treatment suitable for clinical promotion.