Author: bmasmd

I am the salaried Medical Director of the British Medical Acupuncture Society (BMAS) - a registered charity established to stimulate and promote the use and scientific understanding of acupuncture within medicine for the public benefit.

Acupuncture and reduced mortality

Inspired by Xian et al 2022.[1] Photo by NCI on Unsplash. SR – systematic reviewEA – electroacupunctureRCT – randomised controlled trialAPACHE – acute physiology and chronic health evaluationAPACHE II – a score applied to patients on admission to ICU for risk stratificationICU – intensive care unitMD – mean differenceCI – confidence interval key to acronyms … Continue reading Acupuncture and reduced mortality →

ST36 EA and T cells in sepsis

Inspired by Lv et al 2022.[1] MC's favourite protocol for prophylaxis of systemic inflammation. Frequencies vary with the device used: Cefar Acus 4 – 2Hz burst; AS Super 4 Digital – 2/15Hz dense dispersed; ITO ES130 – 10Hz. EA – electroacupunctureLPS – lipopolysaccharide (derived from bacterial cell membranes)TNFα – tumour necrosis factor alphaIL-1β – interleukin … Continue reading ST36 EA and T cells in sepsis →

Acupuncture for PSA

Inspired by Li et al 2022.[1] Figure 2 from Lu et al BMJ 2022.[2]Cumulative meta-analysis of the use of acupuncture compared with language rehabilitation for functional communication in patients with post-stroke aphasia. Note that the values of each row are pooled estimates of all the previous trials plus the named trial of that row. PSA … Continue reading Acupuncture for PSA →

Exercise vs IA saline in OAK

Inspired by Bandak et al 2022.[1] IA – intra-articularOA – osteoarthritisOAK – OA kneeGLA:D – Good Life with osteoArthritis in DenmarkUS – ultrasoundKOOS – Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome ScoreSMD – standardised mean difference (a measure of effect size used in meta-analyses)EA – electroacupunctureMCID – minimum clinically important differencekey to acronyms I am very grateful … Continue reading Exercise vs IA saline in OAK →

Smartphone-controlled TENS

Inspired by Joan Gan et al 2021 and Sha et al 2022.[1,2] Joan Gan et al Figure 1.[1] TENS – transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulationEA – electroacupunctureSCEA – smartphone-controlled EA (note this was not a form of EA)key to acronyms I found this paper from last year thanks to a letter written in response, which was … Continue reading Smartphone-controlled TENS →

Burkholderia pseudomallei

Inspired by Xiao et al 2022.[1] Cerevisae, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.  DM – diabetes mellitusT6SS – type VI secretion systemT3SS – type III secretion systemCT – computed tomographyTB – tuberculosisMRI – magnetic resonance imagingIV – intravenouskey to acronyms Also known as Pseudomonas pseudomallei, sure enough this Gram-negative, bipolar, aerobic, motile, rod bacterium appears … Continue reading Burkholderia pseudomallei →

Improving acupuncture research 2022

Inspired by a series of recent on access articles in the BMJ online.[1–6] Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com CACMS – China Academy of Chinese Medical SciencesBUCM – Beijing University of Chinese MedicineEBM – evidence-based medicineSR – systematic reviewRCT – randomised controlled trialGRADE – Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (a method of grading … Continue reading Improving acupuncture research 2022 →

Acupuncture for SAR 2022

Inspired by Gellrich et al 2022.[1] Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com SAR – Seasonal Allergic Rhinitis (aka hay fever)aka – also known asAR – allergic rhinitisRCT – randomised controlled trialMA – manual acupunctureARC – Acupuncture in Routine Care (acronym for a set of pragmatic trials within theModellvorhaben Akupunktur)ICER – incremental cost-effectiveness ratioQALY – quality adjusted … Continue reading Acupuncture for SAR 2022 →