The BMAS Blog
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Analysis and discussion of the latest acupuncture news, research findings and policy developments in acupuncture in medicine; mainly relating to evidence-based, Western medical acupuncture
The BMAS Blog
14h ago
Stimulated by Ma et al and Zhang et al 2024.[1,2] MC doing tongue manoeuvres with a needle buried in CV23 at a BMAS Practical course in March 2024.
CV23 has recently been introduced on the BMAS Foundation Course…
PSD – post stroke dysphagia
IF – impact factor
FMA – Fugl-Meyer assessment (motor function assessment after stroke)
BI – Barthel index (assessment of activities of daily living)
DOSS – dysphagia outcome severity scale
SWAL-QOL – swallowing quality of life (outcome score)
APC – article processing charge
CAM – complementary and alternative medicine
MBA – masters in business administrat ..read more
The BMAS Blog
2w ago
Stimulated by Ma et al 2024.[1] Photo by Julius Carmine on Unsplash.
This image came up when I searched for Yancheng on Unsplash. Just to the right of centre, between the two central pillars you can just see a fluid level – I guess that is the Yellow Sea.
EA – electroacupuncture
PSD – post stroke depression
RCT – randomised controlled trial
SR – systematic review
HAMD-17 – Hamilton depression scale (the first 17 items)
SDS – Zung self-rating depression scale
MBI – modified Barthel index
key to acronyms
This is a relatively large, single centre, sham controlled and comparative RCT from a group ..read more
The BMAS Blog
3w ago
Stimulated by Huang et al 2024.[1]
Seven Sisters tube station – platform 4 (2) by Mike Quinn is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.0.
This is entirely unrelated to the content of this blog apart from the shared word – tube.
‘tubes’ – this refers to urinary catheters, NG tubes and tracheostomies
NG – nasogastric
NHIRD – nation health insurance research database (Taiwan)
HCC – home health care
LGTD – longitudinal generation tracking database
aHR – adjusted hazard ratio
CI – confidence interval
key to acronyms and terms
I continue to be surprised by these retrospective cohort studies from Taiwan. The tec ..read more
The BMAS Blog
1M ago
Stimulated by Ben-Arie et al 2024.[1]
ICU – intensive care unit
SR – systematic review
MV – mechanical ventilation
RCT – randomised controlled trial
EA – electroacupuncture
MA – manual acupuncture
US – ultrasound
RR – relative risk
CI – confidence interval
key to acronyms
This paper was published online in November 2023, but I could not access the full text. Eventually I wrote to one of the corresponding authors (Yu-Chen Lee) and he kindly sent me a pdf.
It is another SR based on trials of patients in ICU from the same team in Taichung, Taiwan, as the one I highlighted on the safety of acupu ..read more
The BMAS Blog
1M ago
Stimulated by Huang et al 2023.[1] Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com
RA – rheumatoid arthritis
RCIPD – Registry for Catastrophic Illness Patients Database
NHIRD – national health insurance research database (Taiwan)
DMARDs – disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs
aHR – adjusted hazard ratio
CHD – coronary heart disease
key to acronyms
I thought this was the first time I had seen one of these large observational cohort studies from Taiwan published in BMJ Open, but on checking my records I see that there was one from the pre-blog era that I managed to scoop into the end of a blog in 2021 ..read more
The BMAS Blog
1M ago
Inspired by Hoerder et al 2023.[1] Photo by How-Soon Ngu on Unsplash.
DPN – diabetic peripheral neuropathy
ACUCIN – acupuncture for chemotherapy-induced neuropathy
ACUDIN – acupuncture for diabetic induced neuropathy
ACUDPN – acupuncture in diabetic peripheral neuropathy
NCS – nerve conduction studies
ARC – acupuncture in routing care (a set of trials from Germany in the 00’s)
MA – manual acupuncture
VAS – visual analogue score
SR – systematic review
EA – electroacupuncture
RCT – randomised controlled trial
key to acronyms
This paper was published in mid-December 2023 in the Wo ..read more
The BMAS Blog
1M ago
Inspired by Huang et al 2023.[1] This Figure is taked from the published protocol.[2]
EA – electroacupuncture
TKA – total knee arthroplasty
RCT – randomised controlled trial
VAS – visual analogue score
PCA – patient-controlled analgesia
MSK – musculoskeletal
SD – standard deviation
CI – confidence interval
MCID – minimum important clinical difference
key to acronyms
This is a paper that we (Acupuncture in Medicine) published online at the very end of 2023, so when it is selected for an issue, it will be 2024. If you are a BMAS member you need to access the full text via the Acupuncture in Med ..read more
The BMAS Blog
2M ago
Inspired by Li et al 2024.[1] This is the first question of the Western aphasia battery…
My point is that you cannot do mechanistic laboratory studies on PSA in rodents.
Photo by Kanashi on Unsplash.
PSA – post-stroke aphasia
PSA – prostatic specific antigen (not the subject of this blog)
EA – electroacupuncture
PSD – post-stroke dysphagia (the subject of a previous blog)
RCT – randomised controlled trial
MA – manual acupuncture
SR – systematic review
AQ – aphasia quotient
WAB – Western aphasia battery
CFCP – Chinese functional communication profile
key to acronyms
It has been nearly 2 years ..read more
The BMAS Blog
2M ago
Inspired by Cao et al 2023.[1] With thanks to Deniah for the image.
EA – electroacupuncture
IR – insulin resistance
PCOS – polycystic ovary syndrome
BMI – body mass index
HOMA-IR – homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance
AUC – area under curve
key to acronyms
I have a blog category for PCOS, but the last post on the topic was over 2 years ago. This paper is a post hoc analysis of a prior trial. That means nobody thought about doing it beforehand… but only after they had seen the data.
The original trial was highlighted here: EA vs metformin for IR in PCOS 2021.[2] It was a 3-armed ..read more
The BMAS Blog
2M ago
Stimulated by Ko et al 2023.[1] A sketch of the treatment room interaction by MC. See below for key to acronyms in this diagram.
PPI – patient–practitioner interactions
WM – Western medicine
CM – Chinese medicine
PoPS – principles of point selection
WMA – Western medical acupuncture
RI – Royal Institution (the place where they do the Christmas Lectures)
OA – osteoarthritis
NDI – Nepean Dyspepsia Index (Korean version used in this trial)
AI – artificial intelligence
key to acronyms
I have been interested in the practitioner effect ever since a Norwegian colleague presented his data on acupunc ..read more