Cervical repetitive peripheral magnetic stimulation relieves idiopathic persistent hiccups: A preliminary study of case report.

OBJECTIVE: We postulated that repetitive peripheral magnetic stimulation (rPMS) might treat idiopathic persistent hiccups. This study aimed to determine the clinical effect of rPMS on hiccup alleviation. METHODS: Seven patients with idiopathic persistent hiccups experienced the cervical rPMS session (1 Hz, 656 stimuli) in this prospective clinical series from November 2018 to May 2021. The rPMS session was applied once daily until the hiccups were utterly relieved. During the treatment, the round coil was transversally positioned over the upper nape area, and the center of the coil was placed at the level of the C4 vertebrae. The subjective assessment scale (SAS) scores and the hiccup frequency were assessed before and after rPMS treatment. RESULTS: A total of 7 patients were enrolled. All were male post-stroke patients ([mean ±â€…SD] age, 58.5 ±â€…9.85 years) with dysphasia, 3 patients (3/7) were fed with a nasogastric tube, and 4 patients (4/7) were with dysarthria. The mean duration of hiccups was 4.14 ±â€…3.63 days (range 2-12 days). The rPMS therapy eliminated hiccups in all 7 patients. The mean sessions which stopped hiccupping were 3.43 ±â€…2.57 (range 1-9). The mean value of the SAS scores before rPMS therapy was 7 ±â€…1 (range 6-8), and it was decreased to zero after the therapy (0). No recurrence of hiccups was observed within 2 weeks of the last rPMS session. rPMS therapies were not associated with severe adverse effects. CONCLUSION: The cervical rPMS therapy is beneficial in treating idiopathic persistent hiccups, particularly in post-stroke patients.

Comparing the efficacy of non-invasive physical therapy in improving pain and joint function of knee osteoarthritis: A protocol for systematic review and network meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: The incidence of knee osteoarthritis is increasing year by year, which seriously affects people's quality of life, especially the elderly, and has become a major public health problem. A lot of evidence shows that physical therapy has advantages in the treatment of knee joints, but there are a number of physical therapy schemes, and the efficacy of each scheme is different. This study will evaluate the clinical efficacy of different physical therapy regimens in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis (KOA) by means of network meta-analysis. METHODS: According to the search strategy, we will retrieve the randomized controlled studies of non-invasive physical therapy in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis from CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, China Biomedical medicine, PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and The Cochrane Library databases. The retrieval time was from the establishment of the database to March 2021. We will assess the quality of the studies using the Cochrane Risk Bias Assessment Tool and assess the strength of the evidence using the GRADE methodology. All data analyses will be performed by RevMan5.3, GEMTC 0.14.3, and Stata 14.0. RESULTS: This study will evaluate the efficacy of different physical therapy in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis by evaluating the total response rate, pain relief degree, joint function score, quality of life score, adverse reactions, etc. CONCLUSIONS: This study will provide a reliable evidence-based basis for the selection of better physical therapy for the treatment of knee osteoarthritis. OSF REGISTRATION NUMBER: DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/VX98B.