Deans' stroke musings: A multimodal MRI study of XNKQ acupuncture for limb dysfunction after ischemic stroke: a randomized controlled study protocol

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Monday, June 3, 2024

A multimodal MRI study of XNKQ acupuncture for limb dysfunction after ischemic stroke: a randomized controlled study protocol

Impossible to have effects except as a placebo. Energy meridians have never been proven to exist.

No mechanism of action is possible.

But if you believe, have at it, recognizing these possible side effects;

acupuncture side effects

A multimodal MRI study of XNKQ acupuncture for limb dysfunction after ischemic stroke: a randomized controlled study protocol

Chunlei Tian^1,2^†

Lingyong Xiao^1,2^†

Ruiyu Li^1,2

Yinghui Chang^1,2

Zhe Lv³

Lanping Li^1,2

Shiqing Zhao^1,2

Xiaoyu Dai^1,2^*

¹Department of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, First Teaching Hospital of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, China
²National Clinical Research Center for Chinese Medicine Acupuncture and Moxibustion, Tianjin, China
³Imaging Department, First Teaching Hospital of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, China

Introduction: Limb motor dysfunction is one of the challenges in rehabilitation after cerebral ischemic stroke (CIS) and greatly affects the quality of life of patients. This study aims to investigate the central mechanisms of the curative effect with multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which will provide additional evidence to support the application of Xingnao Kaiqiao (XNKQ) acupuncture.

Methods and analysis: This trial is a randomized controlled trial. Patients who meet the criteria will be recruited and randomly divided into 2 groups. One group will receive acupuncture treatment and another group will not receive acupuncture treatment. Both groups will receive conventional treatment. In addition, 20 healthy individuals will be recruited who will not receive any treatment. The total course of treatment is 14 days. The primary outcome is multimodal MRI analysis. For safety assessment, adverse events will be observed and recorded.

Ethics and dissemination: The study involving human subjects was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of IRB of The First Teaching Hospital of Tianjin University of TCM (TYLL2023[K]031). This study complied with the Declaration of Helsinki. Written informed consent about this study was provided by the participants. The results of this study will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Clinical trial registration: Chinese Clinical Trial Registration Center (ChiCTR2300078315) https://www.chictr.org.cn/.

Introduction

Data (1) from the Global Burden of Disease study show that the absolute number of stroke episodes increased by 70.0% from 1990 to 2019, while the age-standardized rates of stroke incidence decreased by 17.0%. Stroke (2) is the leading cause of disability and death in adults in China. By 2019, the number of stroke patients in China was about 28.76 million (3), of which cerebral infarction accounted for 24.18 million. If it is not treated and prevented in time, cerebral ischemic stroke (CIS) patients will be disabled or even have a recurrence of cerebral infarction in a short period, which will seriously affect their life and health and increase their economic burden.

About 12.5% of stroke survivors left with a disability in 2020 (2), equivalent to file.2 million people. After 12 months of follow-up, the rate of disability among stroke survivors was 14.8% at 3 months and 14.0% at 12 months. Therefore, how to effectively improve limb dysfunction and help patients return to daily life still needs to be further explored. In this process, exploring the brain’s mechanistic changes to improve treatment options can provide better help to patients.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) (4) is a non-invasive and radiation-free imaging technique, and multiple sequences can show different brain functional changes, which is widely used to study brain mechanisms (5). It can monitor the activation of brain regions, and brain functional connectivity, guide clinical rehabilitation and suggest patient prognosis.

Acupuncture is a traditional Chinese medicine treatment technique that is applied to a variety of diseases. Xingnao Kaiqiao (XNKQ) acupuncture was founded by academician Shi Xuemin of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Its clinical effects have been satisfactorily verified. It is now widely used in post-stroke rehabilitation. And clinical data show its safety and efficacy. Further research is needed to support the mechanism by which XNKQ acupuncture acts on the brain in CIS patients. We used multimodal MRI technology to further explore the central mechanism by which XNKQ acupuncture exerts action in patients with post-stroke limb dysfunction.