Journal of the Chinese Medical Association
Volume 70, Issue 7 , Pages 265-268, July 2007

Acupuncture Therapy Results in Immediate Bronchodilating Effect in Asthma Patients

  • Kuo-An Chu

      Affiliations

    • Division of Chest Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
    • National Yang-Ming University School of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorrespondence to: Dr Kuo-An Chu, Division of Chest Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, 386, Ta-Chung 1st Road, Kaohsiung 813, Taiwan, R.O.C.
    • ,
  • Yi-Chin Wu

      Affiliations

    • Division of Chest Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
    • ,
  • Yao-Min Ting

      Affiliations

    • Division of Chest Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
    • National Yang-Ming University School of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
    • ,
  • Hong-Chung Wang

      Affiliations

    • Division of Chest Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
    • National Yang-Ming University School of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
    • ,
  • Jau-Yeong Lu

      Affiliations

    • Division of Chest Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Cheng Hsin Rehabilitation Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Received 31 July 2006; accepted 25 April 2007.

Background

According to previous data on asthma in the English literature, there are some results that show encouraging effects of acupuncture improving pulmonary function in asthma patients. We designed a prospective randomized crossover controlled study to determine the efficacy of acupuncture in asthma patients.

Methods

Eighteen asthma patients with bronchodilator response > 20% improvement of forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) were initially randomly assigned to receive 1 performance of real acupuncture (RA) or sham acupuncture (SA) in a blinded manner. After a washout period, the patients were crossed over. Spirometry was done and recorded before and after acupuncture.

Results

Sixteen of 18 patients completed the study. The mean (± SD) FEV1 values before and after RA were 1.52 ± 0.45 L and 1.67 ± 0.40 L, respectively (p < 0.001). The mean (± SD) FEV1 values before and after SA were 1.49 ± 0.40 L and 1.49 ± 0.41 L, respectively (p = 0.838, not significant). The percentage change in FEV1 values after RA was better than after SA (RA, 11.57 ± 8.11%; SA, 0.32 ± 7.76%; p = 0.003), while the bronchodilator response of FEV1 from simple inhalation bronchodilator was better than that for RA (p < 0.001).

Conclusion

In asthma patients, acupuncture treatment may result in immediate improvement of FEV1, but the degree of improvement is less than that from inhalation bronchodilator.

Key Words:  acupuncture , asthma , spirometry

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PII: S1726-4901(07)70002-3

doi:10.1016/S1726-4901(07)70002-3

Journal of the Chinese Medical Association
Volume 70, Issue 7 , Pages 265-268, July 2007

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