Electromyographic Study of Acupuncture and Moxibustion Therapy for Knee Pain (II)

Abstract

Introduction
In my studies (Journal of The Japan Society of Acupuncture 35 (3, 4)), the muscular activity of the quadricepes femoris was studied while the subjects were descending stairs.
The present study, therefore, was designed to evaluate the tibialis anterior, gastrocnemius medial head, gastrocnemius lateral head.
Materials and Methods
The subjects consisted of a group of 7 patients with knee pain (7 females, 61.14 years in mean age) and a normal group of 10 healthy persons (9 males, 3 females, 39.70 years in mean age).
Electromyography was performed on the tibial anterior, gastrocnemius medial head and gastrocnemius lateral head during ascending and descending stairs.
The examinations were performed pre- and post acupuncture and moxibustion treatment over a mean of the subsequent 4.5 weeks.
Results
1) The muscular activity of the quadriceps femoris showed an overt pattern with two peaks in the normal group, but a random pattern was shown in the knee pain group.
2) The tibial anterior and gastocnemius showed higher and longerlasting muscular activity than the normal group during descending stairs.
3) The results indicated that electromyography of the quadriceps femoris and gastrocnemius is useful for objective evaluation of knee joint function, and that the quadriceps femoris and gastrocnemius are important subjects for acupuncture and moxibustion treatment.