Observation on clinical effects of acupoint thread-embedding method for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

• Published in: Journal of acupuncture and tuina science Vol. 14; no. 3; pp. 186 - 191
• Main Authors: Huang, Zhen, Song, Shuang-lin, Tan, Ke-ping, Chu, Jia-mei, Chu, Xiao-ying, Zeng, You-hua
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.06.2016; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Acupuncture; Clinical Study; Liver diseases; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; 非酒精性脂肪性肝病; 辨证论治; A; Acupoint Therapy; R246.1; Liver-qi Stagnation and Spleen Deficiency; 穴位疗法; 肝郁脾虚; Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease; Embedding Therapy; Syndrome Differentiation Treatment; 埋藏疗法
• ISSN: 1672-3597; 1993-0399
• DOI: 10.1007/s11726-016-0922-6

Objective To observe the clinical effects of acupoint thread-embedding method for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in pattern of liver qi stagnation and spleen deficiency. Methods A total of 180 cases in conformity with the diagnostic criteria of NAFLD in pattern of liver qi stagnation and spleen deficiency were randomly divided into a treatment group and a control group, 90 cases in each group, and finally 88 cases in the treatment group and 90 cases in the control group were recruited for statistics. The treatment group was managed by acupoint thread-embedding method, and the control group was treated by oral administration of Polyene Phosphatidylcholine capsules. Both groups were treated for 6 months. Before and after the treatment, liver enzymology, blood fat test, abdominal B ultrasonic examination, and assessment of clinical effects were respectively processed. Results After treatment, alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST), total cholesterol (TC), and triglyceride (TG) decreased in the treatment group, and were significantly different from those in the control group after treatment (all P <0.05). There was no statistically significant inter-group difference in the degree of fatty liver (by B ultrasound examination) before treatment ( P >0.05). After treatment, the improvement degree of fatty liver in the treatment group was more significant than that in the control group ( P <0.05). The total effective rates were 89.8% in the treatment group and 76.7% in the control group, with a statistically significant difference between the two groups ( P <0.05). Conclusion The acupoint thread-embedding method can reduce the levels of ALT, AST, TC and TG in NAFLD patients, and can improve the pathologic degree of fatty liver and its clinical effects are remarkably better than that of oral medications.