Objective: To observe the curative effect of long-time retention of scalp needle in the treatment of vascular dementia (VD) patients, and its influence on P300.
Methods: Sixty-five cases of VD patients were randomly divided into acupuncture group (n = 33) and medication group (n = 32). For patients of acupuncture group, Duxil tablets were taken orally, scalp-points Dingzhongxian (MS 5), Ezhongxian (MS 1) and bilateral Dingpangxian I (MS 8) were punctured separately with the filiform needles retained for 10 h, once daily for 8 weeks. Patients of medication group were asked to take Duxil tablets orally, one tablet/time, twice daily for 8 weeks. Mini-mental state examination (MMSE), Hastgawa dementia scale (HDS) were used to evaluate the patients' abilities of orientation, calculation, immediate and remote memory and speech. Activity of Daily Living (ADL) Scale was used to evaluate their daily life ability. The latency and amplitude of event-related potential P300 of electroencephalograph (EEG) were analyzed before and after the treatment.
Results: After the treatment, of the 33 and 32 cases in acupuncture and medication groups, the controlled, markedly effective, effective and ineffective cases were 2 and 1, 9 and 4, 18 and 16, 4 and 11, respectively; with the total effective rates being 87.88% and 68.75% separately. The total effective rate of acupuncture group was obviously higher than that of medication group. Self-comparison showed that MMSE and HDS scores of both acupuncture and medication groups increased significantly in comparison with their individual pre-treatment values (P < 0.05, P < 0.01), while ADL of both groups decreased significantly (P < 0.05, P < 0.01). Before treatment, compared with normal people, the latencies of P300 in two groups increased significantly (P < 0.01), while the amplitudes of two groups decreased significantly (P < 0.01). After the treatment, the situations of two groups were corrected apparently (P < 0.05). The effects of acupuncture group were significantly superior to those of medication group in MMSE, HDS and ADL scores and the latency of P300 (P < 0.05).
Conclusion: Long-term retention of scalp acupuncture needles can improve VD patients' intelligence, ADL ability and EEG.