Effects of acupuncture of Neiguan points on serum level of brain-derived neurotrophic factor in children with spastic cerebral palsy

LIU Qiang; LEI Xun-ming; CHEN Quan-jing; CHEN Shao-jun; LI Xu

doi:10.13798/j.issn.1009-153X.2017.04.008

Abstract：Objective To investigate effects of acupuncture of Neiguan points on the serum level of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in children with spastic cerebral palsy.Methods Seventy-two children with spastic cerebral palsy who were treated in our hospital from March,2012 to March,2016,were randomly divided into two groups of thirty-six children each,i.e.observed group in which the children were treated by acupuncture of Neiguan points on the basis of routine treatment and control group in which the children received the routine treatment.The serum levels of BDNF were determined by ELISA in all the children and the curative effects were compared between both the groups 3 months after the treatment.Results The total effective rate (97.2％, 35/36) was significantly higher in the observed group than that (77.8％,28/36) in the control group (P＜0.05).The serum level of BDNF [(4.92±1.39) ng/ml] were significantly higher in the observed group than that [(4.56± 1.09) ng/ml] in the control group (P＜0.05) 3 months after the treatment.The serum levels of BDNF were significantly higher 3 months after the treatment than those before the treatment in the observed and control groups.The adaptation and language behavior scores in the observed group [(87.24±4.29) points and (84.25 ±3.84) points respectively]were significantly higher respectively than those in the control group [(76.20±5.11) points and (77.02±4.19) points respectively] (P＜0.05)after the treatment.The adaptation and language behavior scores after the treatment were significantly higher than those before the treatment in the two groups (P＜0.05).Conclusion That the acupuncture of Neiguan points in children with spastic cerebral palsy is very helpful to improvement of the curative effect and promoting mental development may be related with the increased expression of BDNF produced by the acupuncture of Neiguan points.