Department of Nursing, Physical Therapy and Medicine, University of Almeria, Almeria, Spain.
Instituto de Investigación Biosanitaria ibs. Granada, Granada, Spain.
Acupunct Med. 2020 Jun;38(3):140-149. doi: 10.1136/acupmed-2017-011504. Epub 2020 Jan 28.
Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is a condition characterised by the presence of chronic, widespread musculoskeletal pain, low pain threshold and hyperalgesia. Myofascial trigger points (MTrPs) may worsen symptoms in patients with FMS.
The purpose of this randomised controlled trial was to compare the effects of dry needling and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) on pain intensity, heart rate variability, galvanic response and oxygen saturation (SpO).
74 subjects with FMS were recruited and randomly assigned to either the dry needling group or the TENS group. Outcomes measures (pain intensity, heart rate variability, galvanic skin response, SpO and photoplethysmography) were evaluated at baseline and after 6 weeks of treatment. 2×2 mixed-model analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were performed.
The mixed-model ANOVAs showed significant differences between groups for the sensory dimension of pain, affective dimension of pain, total dimension of pain, visual analogue scale (VAS) and present pain intensity (PPI) (P=0.001). ANOVAs also showed that significant differences between groups were achieved for very low frequency power of heart rate variability (P=0.008) and low frequency power (P=0.033). There were no significant differences in dry needling versus TENS groups on the spectral analysis of the photoplethysmography and SpO.
This trial showed that application of dry needling therapy and TENS reduced pain attributable to MTrPs in patients with FMS, with greater improvements reported in the dry needling group across all dimensions of pain. Additionally, there were between-intervention differences for several parameters of heart rate variability and galvanic skin responses.
NCT02393352.
纤维肌痛综合征（FMS）的特征是存在慢性、广泛的肌肉骨骼疼痛、低痛阈和痛觉过敏。肌筋膜触发点（MTrPs）可能会使 FMS 患者的症状恶化。
本随机对照试验的目的是比较干针和经皮神经电刺激（TENS）对疼痛强度、心率变异性、电流皮肤反应和血氧饱和度（SpO）的影响。
招募了 74 名患有 FMS 的受试者，并将他们随机分配到干针组或 TENS 组。在基线和治疗 6 周后评估了结局测量（疼痛强度、心率变异性、电流皮肤反应、SpO 和光电容积脉搏波）。进行了 2×2 混合模型方差分析（ANOVA）。
混合模型 ANOVA 显示，两组之间在疼痛的感觉维度、疼痛的情感维度、疼痛的总维度、视觉模拟量表（VAS）和当前疼痛强度（PPI）方面存在显著差异（P=0.001）。ANOVAs 还显示，两组之间在心率变异性的极低频功率（P=0.008）和低频功率（P=0.033）方面也达到了显著差异。在光电容积脉搏波和 SpO 的光谱分析方面，干针与 TENS 组之间没有显著差异。
本试验表明，干针疗法和 TENS 均可减轻 FMS 患者因 MTrPs 引起的疼痛，干针组在疼痛的所有维度上均有更大的改善。此外，在心率变异性和电流皮肤反应的几个参数方面，干预之间存在差异。
NCT02393352。
