CLINICAL STUDY ON THE TREATMENT OF ACUTE CEREBRAL INFARCTION WITH ACUPUNCTURE COMBINED WITH MEDICINES

Objective: To observe the therapeutic effect of acupuncture combined with medicines for acute cerebral infarction and to study its mechanism. Methods: A total of 80 acute cerebral infarction patients were evenly randomized into treatment and control groups. Patients of treatment group were treated with acupuncture of Baihui (百会GV 20), Fengchi (风池GB 20), Jiquan (极泉HT 1), Neiguan (内关PC 6), etc. and those of control group treated with conventional medicines as low molecular dextran, compound Red Sage injection, Citicolinum, etc. Scores of clinical neurological deficits, blood flow velocity peak (Vp) and mean blood flow velocity (Vm) of the bilateral internal carotid artery (ICA), middle cerebral artery (MCA), anterior cerebral artery (ACA), posterior cerebral artery (PCA), basilar artery (BA) and vertebral artery (VA) were detected with transcranial Doppler (TCD) were analyzed before and after treatment. Results: After 12 days' treatment, the neurological deficit scores in both treatment and control groups decreased significantly, and the difference values of the score of the former group was significantly bigger than these of the later group (P0.01). Vp and Vm of all the detected arteries in treatment group and bilateral ACA, MCA and PCA of control group increased significantly in comparison with pre-treatment (P0.05, P0.01); and the difference values of Vm of bilateral MCA and VA (between post-and pre-treatment) of treatment group were significantly bigger than those of control group (P0.01). Conclusion: The therapeutic effect of acupuncture combined with medication is significantly superior to that of simple medication in the treatment of acute cerebral infarction.