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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Neurol.
Sec. Experimental Therapeutics
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fneur.2025.1546194
The usage, anti-inflammatory effect and safety of adjunctive use of acupuncture for cerebral infarction: An Apriori algorithm of data mining and meta-analysis
Provisionally accepted
Fangfei Yu 1
Li Shuang 2 Zunjiang Li 1,3,4
Zhaofan Mo 3*
Rong Liu 1
Jiaying Zhao 5
Banghan Ding 6,7* Wei Yi 1,5*
Nenggui Xu 1*- 1 Clinical School of Acupuncture, Moxibustion and Rehabilitation, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
- 2 First Clinical Medical College, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China
- 3 The Second Clinical College, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China
- 4 Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China
- 5 South China Research Center for Acupuncture and Moxibustion, Medical College of Acu-Moxi and Rehabilitation, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
- 6 The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China
- 7 Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China
Background Purpose: The adjunctive effect of acupuncture for cerebral infarction (CI) remains inconsistent, we aimed to determine the anti-inflammatory effect, safety and summarize the usage of the adjunctive use of acupuncture for CI.Methods: Qualified randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were identified from 8 literature databases. The frequency analysis and Apriori association analysis were performed using SPSS modeler software 18.0 and SPSS software 26.0. Meta-analysis was performed by the Stata software 17.0. The credibility of meta results and evidence's certainty were assessed by the trial sequential analysis (TSA) and the GRADE methods respectively.Results: 43 RCTs were included with a total of 3861 participants. Acupuncture with intermittent treatment (5-7 time/week), combination of multi-points and multi-medians (an average number of 9.35 points in each prescription) and lasting for 2-4 weeks were usually chosen for CI treatment. Meta-analysis indicated adjunctive use of acupuncture reduced the level of TNF-α(SMD = -1.36; 95% CI -1.51 to -1.20, p <0.01), hs-CRP(SMD = -0.86; 95% CI -0.99 to -0.74, p <0.01), IL-6(SMD = -0.85; 95% CI -1.08 to -0.62, p <0.01) and decreased the adverse events rate (RR = 0.71; 95% CI 0.49 to 1.01; p < 0.05) better, the evidence's certainty were rated from moderate to high level.Intermittent acupuncture treatment with at least 2 weeks were commonly used for CI patients via multi-acupuncture points and multi-medians. Acupuncture had an anti-inflammatory role in treating CI, but due to the low quality of the literature, high-quality RCTs are required to confirm the results in future.
Keywords: Acupuncture, Cerebral Infarction, anti-inflammatory effect, Meta-analysis, Apriori algorithm
Received: 21 Dec 2024; Accepted: 24 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yu, Shuang, Li, Mo, Liu, Zhao, Ding, Yi and Xu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Zhaofan Mo, The Second Clinical College, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China
Banghan Ding, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, 510260, Guangdong Province, China
Wei Yi, Clinical School of Acupuncture, Moxibustion and Rehabilitation, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
Nenggui Xu, Clinical School of Acupuncture, Moxibustion and Rehabilitation, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
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