The Clinical Study On Treatment Of Abdominal Pain Symptoms Of Irritable Bowel Syndrome By Electroacupuncture At Local Point Or Remote Point

ObjectiveA large number of studies have indicated that there is a lack of analgesic effect in the presence of diffuse noxious inhibitory control (DNIC) in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). BY observing the analgesic effect of electroacupuncture at local and distal acupoints on patients with abdominal pain symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome to study the rules of acupuncture points on the disease that deficiency in DNIC.MethodsThis study protocol was approved by the Guangdong province hospital’s ethical committee of Traditional Chinese Medicine (approval number: B2015-055-02). And it has been Registered at China clinical trials registry (registration numbers:ChiCTR-IPR-15006879).23 patients (age range 21-50 years old) with abdominal pain symptoms of IBS participated in the study, they were recruited from the acupuncture department of Guangdong TCM hospital. All patients have read the informed consent.With randomized controlled clinical method, subjects were assigned to one of four active groups:electroacupuncture applied at the abdomen of patients (Tianshu and Wailing) were administered to 2 groups, one group was administered with noxious stimulation and one with innocuous stimulation. While group 3 and 4 received the same means applied at the legs (Zusanli and Shangjuxu acupoints), respectively. Noxious stimulation means 100%≤pain threshold (PT)≤130%; Innocuous stimulation means 50%≤PT≤80%; Gas is appropriate, dilatational wave (2/100Hz),30min, treatment for 2-3 times per week,1 times every 2-3 days,7 times for a course of treatment, a total of two courses. The outcome variables were the pressure pain threshold (PPT) measured before and after every treatments, both abdominal pain scores and IBS-SSS scores were recorded at per-treatment、the seventh、post-treatment and 3 months after treatment. Data were analyzed using the SPSS for Windows.ResultsThe baseline was confirmed by a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) for pre-treatment mean PPT、abdominal pain scores、age(P=0.811)、course showing no significant differences (P＞0.05).Both group 1 and group 2 are significantly increased PPT (P＜0.05) and abdominal pain scores (P＜0.01). No differences in treatment outcomes were found between the two groups. Compare the PPT and abdominal pain scores before and after treatment, there is significantly deference in the 4 groups.ConclusionAcupoints at abdomen with noxious and innocuous stimulation have significant effect of reliving the abdominal pain in IBS. Besides, no differences were found between the two groups. But acupoints at legs can not relive the symptoms of abdominal pain in patients with IBS.It is suggested that acupuncture analgesia should be based on the local selection of acupoints in the absence of DNIC leading to the damaged of endogenous analgesia system.