Observation on clinical effect of acupuncture on superoxide dismutase, lipid peroxide and nitric oxide in vascular dementia patients

Objective: To observe the clinical effect of electro acupuncture and acupuncture on superoxide dismutase (SOD), lipid peroxide (LPO) and nitric oxide (NO) in vascular dementia (VaD) patients.Methods: Forty-six cases of VaD were randomly divided into two groups, the electroacupuncture group (EA group) and the acupuncture group (AP group). Assessment of Hasgawa’s Dementia Scale (HDS), Functional activities Questionnaire (FAQ) and neurologic deficit scoring (NDS) were determined before and after treatment, and the changes in SOD, LPO and NO levels were observed.Results: After treatment, in the EA group, HDS of patients got elevated, FAQ lowered, SOD increased and LPO and NO decreased. The changes were significant as compared with pretreatment, P < 0. 01. But these parameters underwent no significant changes in the AP group after treatment. The clinical symptoms were improved in both groups, but the reduction in NDS was not significant. The total effective rate of the EA group was higher than that of the AP group.