[Clinical trials for treatment of primary hyperlipidemia by using acupuncture in combination with Lipitor].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the clinical effect of acupuncture therapy combined with Lipitor in the treatment of primary hyperlipidemia (spleen deficiency and food stagnation type).

METHODS: Sixty primary hyperlipidemia patients (spleen deficiency and food stagnation type) were equally randomized into medication group and acupuncture plus medication group. Patients of both groups were treated by oral administration of Lipitor (20 mg/tablet, one tablet per day) for 6 weeks. Manual acupuncture stimulation was applied to Baihui (GV 20), Zhongwan (CV 12), and bilateral Zusanli (ST 36), Sanyinjiao (SP 6), Yin-lingquan (SP 9) and Fenglong (ST 40) for 40 min, twice daily for 6 weeks except the weekends. Serum total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) were detected by using a full-automatic biochemistry analyzer before and after the treatment. The therapeutic effect was assessed according to the standards described in "Guide Principles for Clinical Researches of New Chinese Herbal Drugs".

RESULTS: After the treatment, the levels of serum TC, TG of the two groups were significantly decreased in comparison with pre-treatment in the same one group (P<0.05), and the therapeutic effect of the acupuncture+medication group was significantly superior to that of simple medication group in lowering serum TC, TG and LDL-C levels and heightening HDL-C levels (P<0.05). Of the two 30 cases in the medication and acupuncture+medication groups, 2 (6.7%) and 7 (23.3%) were basically controlled in their blood-lipid levels, 10 (33.3%) and 15 (50.0%) had a marked improvement, 10 (33.3%) and 6 (20.0%) were improved, and 8 (26.7%) and 2 (6.7%) were invalid, with the effective rates being 73.3% and 93.3%, respectively.

CONCLUSION: Acupuncture combined with administration of Lipitor is effective in improving primary hyperlipidemia in patients, which is superior to administration of simple Lipitor.