Objective

2

To observe the clinical efficacy of wrist-ankle acupuncture in the treatment of functional frequent premature ventricular contractions (PVCs).

Methods

2

A total of 64 patients with functional frequent PVCs were randomly divided into an observation group and a control group

32 cases in each group. The observation group was treated with wrist-ankle acupuncture at bilateral upper 1 and upper 2 on the wrist. The control group received sham acupuncture at the same points as the observation group. Both groups were treated once every day from Monday to Friday

with the needles retained for 60 min each time

for a total of 4 weeks. The TCM syndrome score

the 24-hour PVC count

and MOS 36-item short form health survey (SF-36) score were compared between the two groups before and after treatment

and the clinical efficacy was evaluated after treatment.

Results

2

After treatment

the TCM syndrome scores and the 24-hour PVC counts in both groups were reduced compared with those before treatment (

P

<

0.01)

and the above indexes in the observation group were lower than those in the control group (

P

<

0.01). After treatment，scores of all SF-36 items in the observation group were increased compared with those before treatment (

P

<

0.01); in the control group

the scores of general health (GH)

social function (SF) and role-emotional (RE) were increased compared with those before treatment (

P

<

0.05). After treatment

scores of all SF-36 items in the observation group were higher than those in the control group (

P

<

0.01). The total effective rate in the observation group was 90.6% (29/32)

which was higher than 46.9% (15/32) in the control group (

P

<

0.01).

Conclusion

2

Wrist-ankle acupuncture has a significant clinical efficacy in the treatment of functional frequent PVCs. It can effectively improve symptoms such as chest tightness and palpitations

reduce 24-hour PVC count

and improve patients’ quality of life.