The Study of Mechanism of Alzheimer's Disease Using Acupuncture Based on fMRI

Capital Medical University

Status: Unknown

Conditions: Alzheimer's Disease

Treatments: Procedure: true acupuncture; Procedure: sham acupuncture

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02759159

81471649

Details and patient eligibility

About

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of the major brain diseases which received more attention in recent years. The disconnection syndrome is the main pathophysiological mechanism leading to cognitive decline in AD patients. Both animal experiment and clinical observation have demonstrated that acupuncture can generate treatment effect on AD patients by moderating the neural pathway directly. However, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. By using resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) method, as well as acupuncture and neurology sciences, investigators will explore the multi-modality data analysis; compare brain connectivity and network parameters changes between pre- and post- acupuncture treatment; analyze the correlation between fMRI changes and neuropsychology test. The present study aims to elucidate the neural mechanism of acupuncture therapy on early AD, provide theoretical evidence from the perspective of functional connectivity.

Enrollment: 120 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 50 to 85 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease Clinical diagnosis of MCI due to Alzheimer's Disease Drug therapy regularly

Exclusion criteria

Frontotemporal dementia Lewy body dementia Vascular dementia Severe depression Brain vascular disease Metabolic disease

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Triple Blind

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120 participants in 4 patient groups

AD-true acupuncture

Experimental group

Description:

True acupuncture at the "four-gate"acupoints will be administered on AD patients

Treatment:

Procedure: true acupuncture

AD-sham acupuncture

Sham Comparator group

Description:

Sham acupuncture at the "four-gate"acupoints will be administered on AD patients

Treatment:

Procedure: sham acupuncture

Mild Cognitive Impairment(MCI)-true acupuncture

Experimental group

Description:

True acupuncture at the "four-gate"acupoints will be administered on MCI patients

Treatment:

Procedure: true acupuncture

MCI-sham acupuncture

Sham Comparator group

Description:

Sham acupuncture at the "four-gate"acupoints will be administered on MCI patients

Treatment:

Procedure: sham acupuncture