[Analysis on Current State of Acupuncture Clinical Trials with Sham Acupuncture Design in Western Countries].

The design of "sham acupuncture" is necessary in clinical trials of acupuncture for confirming its effectiveness in the treatment of different disorders. The authors of the present paper made a comprehensive analysis on "sham acupuncture"or "placebo acupuncture" in clinical trials of acupuncture therapy in western countries from 1) the definition and background of sham acupuncture, 2) current state of acupuncture clinical trials with sham acupuncture design in different countries, 3) current situations of acupuncture clinical trials with sham acupuncture design in Germany, and 4) current state of large sample, randomized controlled clinical trials of acupuncture therapy with sham acupuncture design in other western countries. The authors of the present paper also make an analysis on the developing trends of acupuncture clinical trials with sham acupuncture design and put forward some problems existing in current acupuncture researches.

[Introduction and analysis on acupuncture education and qualification examination system in U.S.A].

Based on research of the Accreditation Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (ACAOM), the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM) and the related public websites of acupuncture educational institutions, the first hand information was studied, summarized and sorted on the status quo of the educational qualification or the relative authentication of education programs of ACAOM as well as the status of professional qualification and examination of NCCAOM. The education curriculum of the Master degree of Acupuncture, Master degree of Oriental Medicine Science as well as the Doctor degree of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine were also introduced in this article including student enrollment and graduation in recent years. The developing tendency of the federal unified acupuncture education, management, professional qualification and examination system of U. S. A. were discussed and analyzed as well.

Meta-analysis of the effectiveness of Chinese and Western integrative medicine on medium and advanced lung cancer.

OBJECTIVE: To summarize the effectiveness of Chinese and Western integrative medicine in treating medium and advanced lung cancer, and to provide guidelines for clinical application. METHODS: For this metaanalysis, a comparative search of Chinese medicine data in Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and Chinese BioMedical Literature Database (CBM) was undertaken to identify articles related to randomized comparative research of Chinese and Western integrative medicine in treating medium and advanced lung cancer between 1996 to 2006. Quality of life (QOL) was estimated using RevMan 4.2 software for data processing, adopting the odd ratio (OR) and the 95% confidence interval (CI). RESULTS: Through meta-analysis of 10 qualified articles, the results were as follows: the merging effectiveness of QOL [OR=3.80, 95% CI (2.65, 5.47)]; the rate of survival [OR=3.44, 95% CI (2.04, 5.80)]; the tumor response rate [OR=1.88, 95% CI (1.37, 2.58)]; the tumor developing rate [OR=0.33, 95% CI (0.23, 0.48)]. Significant differences existed between the Chinese and Western integrative medicine treatment group and the Western treatment group (P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Chinese and Western integrative medicine treatment of medium and advanced lung cancer has shown to improve patients' QOL and survival rate; it also can control tumor development in the short term.

[Analysis of the status and trends of international research in complementary and alternative medicine based on literature mining].

OBJECTIVE: To have an overview of the international status and trends of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) research, and to provide a reference tool for researchers. METHODS: Taking PubMed as the retrieval source, and using the methods of informetrics analysis (such as Price's Law of exponential growth, Bradford's law) and text mining (association rules), CAM articles published between 1998 and 2010 were statistically analyzed on, for example, document growth, core journals and active fields. RESULTS: The literature about CAM research published between 1998 and 2010 showed the trends of exponential growth in quantity. Regional distribution of literature was extensive; China and the United States were the two major sources. Forty-five periodicals were selected from core journals based on Bradford's law of scattering; some colleges and schools constituted the main force in research on CAM. The active fields mainly focus on (1) acupuncture research; (2) phytotherapy research; (3) mind-body medicine; (4) integrative medicine; (5) treatment and prevention of key conditions such as neoplasm, low back pain, mental disorder and chronic diseases. CONCLUSION: (1) CAM research has attracted attention from all over the world, and it will enter a rapid development stage in the future; (2) Treatment and prevention of neoplasm is a consistent key subject and research field in global CAM research; (3) Elucidating clinical effects, mechanisms of action, and safety of major CAM methods constitutes the most important task; (4) Studies on mind-body medicine have increased in recent years, so clinical evaluation and studies of mind-body interventions should be supported; (5) Research has been done increasingly for identification of the clinical effects and biological mechanisms of CAM interventions in symptom management; (6) Research on CAM will stimulate the development of modern medical model; (7) TCM is an active discipline of CAM, and China will thus face increasing challenges.

[Bibliometrics study of the development trend of acupuncture-moxibustion clinical trials in foreign countries].

On the basis of MEDLINE and EMBASE database, through bibliometrics, the quantitative research was conducted on the published literatures on the acupuncture-moxibustion clinical trial abroad. The situation of published articles in each continent, country and institution was analyzed statistically. It was found that the number of published articles was higher in Germany, America, England, Sweden, Austria, Japan, South Korea, etc. In Europe, the clinical trial of acupuncture and moxibustion was in the tendency of more country participants, wider distribution and larger amount of research. In North America, America was the main country for the study. In Asia, Japan and South Korea played the leading role. Of those countries, some institutions in Germany America, and South Korea were on the top of the list. In future, the above-mentioned countries and institutions should be monitored specifically so as to launch the active cooperation and strategic project.

[Development of clinical trials for acupuncture treatment of common illnesses or clinical conditions in countries outside China].

In the present paper, the authors analyze current state of clinical trials for acupuncture treatment of various types of diseases or clinical conditions in countries outside China in the past 30 years. The published top 5 more papers involve disorders of muscle-skeleton and connective tissues (295 papers), disorders of the nerve system (230), problems of the department of gynaecology and obstetrics (164), post-surgical complications (134), and addiction (70). The top 5 countries having more papers published are Germany (59 papers on disorders of muscle-skeleton and connective tissues, 62 on neurological disorders, 17 on problems of the department of gynaecology and obstetrics, 21 on post-surgical complications, and 8 on addiction), USA (43 papers on disorders of muscle-skeleton and connective tissues, 27 on neurological disorders, 24 on problems of the department of gynaecology and obstetrics, 27 on post-surgical complications, and 29 on addiction), British (38 papers on disorders of muscle-skeleton and connective tissues, 17 on neurological disorders, 14 on post-surgical complications, and 6 on addiction), Sweden (17 papers on disorders of muscle-skeleton and connective tissues, 16 on neurological disorders, and 28 on problems of the department of gynaecology and obstetrics), and South Korea (14 papers on neurological disorders, 5 on post-surgical complications, and 3 on addiction).

[Bibliometrics study on indications of acupuncture therapy based on foreign acupuncture clinical trials].

In the present paper, the authors make a bibliometrics study on clinical indications of acupuncture therapy based on the published foreign articles about acupuncture clinical trials collected from PubMed database and Excerpta Medica database (EMbase). In 1996, 64 acupuncture indications were declared by WHO in Milan conference. But in recent 15 years, clinical trials have been conducted extensively in the foreign countries. Till now, 77 new indications for acupuncture therapy have been found in the foreign journals. The authors recommended that 29 indications (knee osteoarthritis, critique age problems, muscular fasciae ache, anxiety, etc.) should be added to the first class, 4 indications (irritable bowel syndrome, malposition, backache, simple obesity) should be upgraded from the second class to the first class, and the other 3 indications (childbirth pain, male and female barren) should be upgraded from the third class to the first class due to their application frequency in clinical trials. Increase of clinical indications reflects extensive application of acupuncture therapy and may help providing a better service for people's health.

[Study on thinking of clinical syndrome differentiation and treatment methods for neck-shoulder pain syndrome].

Neck-shoulder pain syndrome is a commonly-seen disease clinically. Modern medicine has had no better therapy for it yet. Acupuncture and moxibustion have a better therapeutic effect, but improper treatment easily induces protracted course. For the treatment, detailed syndrome differentiation, paying attention to pulse-taking, in combination with local palpation diagnosis and channel palpation, selection of proper acupoints should first be carried out; for manipulation of needling, do not seek first for arrival of qi, but waiting for arrival of qi is important, and warming needle treatment should be combined; for the patient with yang-qi not reaching the four limbs, firstly warming reinforcing yang of the spleen and kidney, then opening the 4 gates, Hegu (LI 4) and Taichong (LR 3) are carried out to promote yang-qi going, and then acupuncture is given at the neck-shoulder based on syndrome differentiation.

[Thinking and methods of treatment of Sjogren's syndrome based on syndrome differentiation of Triple Energizer].

Sjogren's syndrome is one of clinical difficult and complicated diseases and there is no radical treatment for it at present. The authors summarize the thinking of clinical syndrome differentiation and treatment of acupuncture and moxibustion, 4 syndrome-differentiation methods and dredging the Triple Energizer channel, and needling three parts by long-term clinical practice and in combination with clinical study achievements of TCM in recent years, and put the important point of treatment on the Triple Energizer, with the points on the Triple Energizer channel as main points, combined with the points with functions of regulating functional activity of qi and regulating visceral functions, attaining better results. This provides a new method for acupuncture and moxibustion treatment of Sjogren's Syndrome.