ABSTRACT
Objectives:
to evaluate the efficacy of a laser acupuncture protocol developed and applied by nurses in arterial hypertension patients.
Method:
randomized, multicenter, triple-blind and two-armed clinical trial. The sample consisted of 102 participants, 51 per arm, both sexes, aged between 30 and 75 years, undergoing drug therapy for a year or more, with difficulty to control blood pressure, maintaining regular measures >140×90 mmHg. Participants underwent six standard or simulated laser-acupuncture sessions, for 24 minutes, within a period of six weeks. Descriptive analyzes expressed as frequencies of occurrences, means and medians were used, and analysis of the association between variables was performed using Student’s t-test and Anova, using Statistica® software, version 12.0. The significance level was set at 5{44c7f096ae4a0f956ab9167e2bacde9c804851a57290d0086ec17557d44e93e0} (alpha=0.05). The comparison between blood pressure measurements was performed using Student’s t-test for paired samples and Anova for repeated measures.
The same protocol was adopted for arms A and B, which was developed based on systematic review studies and specific literature on acupuncture, taking into account the inharmonic patterns related to SAH, according to the TCM/AP. All participants, regardless of the assignment arm, underwent six non-needle interventions, using only a gallium-aluminum-arsenide (Ga-Al-As) low-power infrared laser-acupuncture equipment, with a Nogier frequency of 6 MW, for 24 minutes and an interval of one week between the interventions. The selected acupoints, located in the head (frontal and occipital regions), upper (hands and arms) and lower (feet) limbs, received the direct application of the equipment on the skin. The order of application, points, anatomical presentation and approach (unilateral or bilateral) and the dwell time on each acupoint are shown in Figure 1.
Results:
a significant reduction in systolic (p<0.001) and diastolic (p<0.001) blood pressure was observed among participants in the intervention arm, which was not observed in the simulation arm.
Conclusion:
the results have demonstrated the efficacy of the protocol. Reduction and control of blood pressure have been demonstrated, indicating the possibility of using this technology for the care of patientes with essential systemic arterial hypertension.
Authors: Raphael Dias de Mello Pereira, 2 Neide Aparecida Titonelli Alvim, 3 Claudia Dayube Pereira, 4 and Saint Clair dos Santos Gomes, Junior 5
Published in: Rev Lat Am Enfermagem. 2018; 26: e2936.
Quelle: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6053295/