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Background Around 15% of the Hong Kong population was found to suffer from overactive bladder (OAB), but the current available treatments, such as medication, behavioral therapy and physical therapy are unsatisfactory. Previous studies have suggested that acupuncture may have promising effect for OAB, but some limitations on the study design render the evidence questionable. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture treatment for patients with OAB in Hong Kong. Methods One hundred patients with OAB were enrolled. The patients were randomized to receive either active acupuncture or sham needle intervention twice a week for 8 consecutive weeks, and had a follow-up consultation 12 weeks after the completion of acupuncture intervention. The primary outcome assessment was the 3-Day Voiding Diary, which records daytime and night-time urinary frequency and symptoms, at the baseline, the end of the 8-week intervention and 12 weeks after acupuncture intervention. Secondary outcomes included Urine NGF level, Incontinence Impact Questionnaire (IIQ-7) and Urogenital Distress Inventory (UDI-6), as well as Overactive Bladder Symptom Score (OABSS). Results After 16 sessions of treatment, when compared with the baseline, both active and sham acupuncture significantly reduced the frequency of urgency urinary incontinence (UUI), daytime and night-time urinary frequency as well as the scores of IIQ-7, UDI-6 and OABSS. Moreover, the treatment effects could last for at least 3 months. However, no significant difference in frequency of UUI and daytime urinary frequency was found between the active and sham acupuncture groups. On the other hand, the night-time urinary frequency decreased more significantly during the treatment and follow-up in the active acupuncture group than in the sham control group after controlling baseline night-time urinary frequency. Urine NGF level could not be detected by ELISA method in our experiments. Conclusion This study suggests a beneficial effect of acupuncture on improving OAB symptoms. Both active and sham acupuncture treatment were able to improve the symptoms of frequency of urgency urinary incontinence, and the daytime and night-time urinary frequency, while only mild adverse effects were found. This project was unable to establish the specific effect of acupuncture for OAB. Trial registration Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, ChiCTR-INR-16010048. Registered on 29 Nov 2016.

Objective. To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture treatment for dysphagia as a complication of stroke. Methods and Design. This is a multicenter, pragmatic, nonrandomized, self-controlled clinical trial. A total of 39 patients were recruited from several Chinese medicine outpatient clinics and hospital-affiliated speech therapy outpatient clinics in Hong Kong. 26 patients completed all the 24 sessions of acupuncture treatment within two months, and only 12 of them were used as self-control. For the self-control group, the retrospective clinical data was taken from the electronic patient records with patient consent. The descriptive swallowing function data were converted into the quantitative Royal Brisbane Hospital Outcome Measure for Swallowing (RBHOMS) scores by two registered speech therapists through a validation process. And the data were validated by reaching consensus between the two speech therapists. All subjects underwent a baseline assessment before commencement of treatment, and outcome assessments were conducted upon the completion of treatment. The primary outcome measure is the RBHOMS score, which is a swallowing disability rating scale for monitoring difficulties in daily swallowing function. Secondary outcome measures include the Chinese version of the Swallow Quality-of-Life Questionnaire and adverse events. All the primary and secondary outcomes were assessed at baseline as well as at the end of acupuncture treatment (month 2). Results. A total of 39 participants aged 46 to 89 years were enrolled in the study, and the male-to-female ratio was 15 : 11. The mean baseline RBHOMS score of all 39 participants was 5.92 ± 2.23. The mean retrospective RBHOMS score of the 12 subjects who were used as self-control was 5.67 ± 1.72 before enrollment, while the mean RBHOMS score of the 26 participants who completed all the 24 sessions of treatment was 6.92 ± 2.07. There were statistically significant differences between the RBHOMS score at the completion of treatment and baseline (p=0.006), and retrospective data (p=0.042). Moreover, a significant difference was also found in terms of swallow quality-of-life score before and after acupuncture treatment (p<0.01). Conclusions. This pilot study provides preliminary evidence for the effectiveness of acupuncture for poststroke dysphagia. The findings from this trial can be used as a foundation for future full-scale randomized controlled clinical trials to assess the efficacy and safety of acupuncture for poststroke dysphagia. Ethics and Dissemination. The ethical approval of the clinical research study was granted by the Research Ethics Committee of both New Territories East and West Cluster of Hong Kong. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants, and the study was undertaken according to the ICH-GCP Guidelines. Trial Registration. This trial is registered with ChiCTR-TRC-12002621 and the registration date is 2012-10-26.

Background Overactive bladder (OAB) is defined as “urgency, with or without urge incontinence, usually with frequency and nocturia”. Acupuncture is one of the most popular alternative treatment methods for OAB. Little established evidence is available to support the effectiveness of acupuncture for OAB. This study is a pioneer randomized, double-blinded, sham-controlled trial to assess the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture in the elderly population with overactive bladder in Hong Kong. Methods/design This is a randomized, double-center, patient and outcome assessor blinded, sham-controlled trial. The study sample size is 100 patients. Eligible subjects aged between 60 to 90 years old will be recruited into this study. All subjects will be randomly allocated into the active acupuncture group or sham acupuncture group in a 1: 1 ratio. Participants who are allocated into the active acupuncture group will receive a standardized 30-min real acupuncture treatment session for a total of 16 sessions on the top of standard routine care, whilst those who are randomized to the sham acupuncture arm will receive sham acupuncture in addition to standard routine care. Non-penetrating needles will be utilized as sham acupuncture. The primary outcome measure is the 7-day voiding diary and the secondary outcome measures are urine nerve growth factor (NGF) level, the Incontinence Impact Questionnaire (IIQ-7), Urogenital Distress Inventory (UDI-6) and OAB Symptom Score (OABSS). All outcome measures will be collected at baseline, the end of treatment and 3 months after treatment completion. Discussion The objectives of this study include (1) to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture treatment in patients with OAB on reduction in the frequency of incontinence episodes as derived from a 7-day voiding diary, (2) to evaluate whether acupuncture treatment could improve subjective symptoms in patients with OAB and (3) to examine the feasibility of using NGF as a biomarker for overactive bladder and test correlation with the effectiveness of acupuncture intervention. The finding of this study will provide preliminary evidence on the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for treatment of OAB. Trial registration Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, ChiCTR-INR-16010048. Registered on 29 Nov 2016. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s13063-018-2706-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.