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[Clinical efficacy of different waves of electroacupuncture on knee osteoarthritis and its effect on TGF-β1 in joint
Dong-E Huang1, Yin Qin1, Mu-Nan Lin1
1Department of Physical Therapy of TCM, the 900th Hospital of Joint Service Corps of Chinese PLA, Fuzhou 350025, Fujian Province, China.
Objective:
To observe the therapeutic effects of different waves of electroacupuncture (EA) on knee osteoarthritis (KOA), and to explore the mechanism of different waves of EA on promoting cartilage repair.
Methods:
Ninety- seven patients with KOA were randomly divided into a dilatational wave group (32 cases, 2 cases dropped off), a continuous wave group (32 cases, 2 cases dropped off) and a discontinuous wave group (33 cases, 3 cases dropped off). The same acupoints of Xuehai (SP 10), Liangqiu (ST 34), Dubi (ST 35) and Neixiyan (EX-LE 4) were selected in the three groups. The dilatational wave (frequency of 2 Hz/10 Hz) was used in the dilatational wave group, the continuous wave (frequency of 10 Hz) was used in the continuous wave group, and the discontinuous wave (frequency of 10 Hz) was used in the discontinuous wave group. All the needles were retained for 30 min. All the treatment was given 3 times a week (on Monday, Wednesday and Friday) for 4 weeks. Lysholm knees scoring scale (LKSS) was used to evaluate the knee joint function before and after treatment, and the content of transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) in the joint effusion before and after treatment was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).
Results:
Compared before treatment, the total score and each score of LKSS were increased after treatment in the three groups (all P<0.05). The improvements of total score, pain score, instability score, swelling score of LKSS in the continuous wave group and the dilatational wave group were superior to those in the discontinuous wave group (all P<0.05). The content of TGF-β1 in the joint effusion in each group was increased after treatment (P<0.05), and the improvement in dilatational wave group was superior to thoes in the continuous wave group and the discontinuous wave group (all P<0.05).
Conclusion:
The three different waves of EA could all improve the clinical symptoms of KOA, which may promote cartilage repair by increasing TGF-β1 content. The dilatational wave had the best overall effect, which can be used as a clinical optimal treatment.
