文章基本信息

标题：Efficacy and central mechanism of acupuncture treatment in patients with neck pain: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial
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作者：Zhen Gao ; Tao Yin ; Lei Lan 等
期刊名称：Trials
印刷版ISSN：1745-6215
电子版ISSN：1745-6215
出版年度：2021
卷号：22
DOI：10.1186/s13063-021-05507-y
语种：English
出版社：BioMed Central
摘要：Background Acupuncture is effective for reducing the symptoms of neck pain (NP). However, the underlying mechanisms are not fully elucidated. Based on evaluating the efficacy of two acupuncture prescriptions for treating NP, this study aims to investigate the potential central mechanism of acupuncture treatment for NP by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Methods This is a randomized controlled trial; 86 patients will be randomly assigned into two acupuncture treatment groups at a ratio of 1:1. The whole study period includes 2 weeks baseline, 2 weeks treatments, and 12 weeks follow-up (4 and 12 weeks after treatment). The pain severity, the neck disability index, the cervical range of motion, and the pressure pain threshold, etc., will be used to evaluate the clinical efficacy of two acupuncture prescriptions for NP treatment. The MRI scans will be performed to detect cerebral activity changes of 20 patients in each group. The clinical data and MRI data will be analyzed, respectively. Pearson correlation coefficient will be used to evaluate the association between changes of cerebral activity features and improvement of clinical symptoms. Discussion The results will provide further evidence for the clinical application of acupuncture in the treatment of NP. Trial registration Chinese Clinical Trial Registry ChiCTR2000040930. Registered on 16 December 2020. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13063-021-05507-y.
关键词：Neck pain; Acupuncture; Central mechanism; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Protocol