Effect on Satisfactory Seizure Control and Heart Rate Variability of Thread-Embedding Acupuncture for Drug-Resistant Epilepsy: A Patient-Assessor Blinded, Randomized Controlled Trial
Table 1
Characteristics at baseline of subjects treated with TEA or sham TEA.
TEA ()
STEA ()
valuea
Gender (, %)
Male
11 (40.74)
12 (44.44)
0.783
Female
16 (59.26)
15 (55.56)
Education (, %)
Secondary school
12 (44.44)
8 (29.63)
0.484
High school
9 (33.33)
10 (37.04)
University degree
6 (22.22)
9 (33.33)
Employment (, %)
Unemployed
9 (33.33)
9 (33.33)
1.000
Intellectual labor
7 (25.93)
7 (25.93)
Manual labor
11 (40.74)
11 (40.74)
Age (years, median (IQR))
31 (27–39)
32 (25–38)
0.795
BMI (kg/m2, mean ± SD)
20.96 ± 1.43
20.49 ± 1.58
0.260
Age onset (years, median (IQR))
18 (10–30)
20 (12–28)
0.467
Age diagnosis (years, median (IQR))
18 (12–30)
20 (16–28)
0.359
Seizure typeb (, %)
Focal seizures
17 (62.96)
19 (70.37)
0.564
Focal seizures to bilateral tonic-clonic
14 (51.85)
15 (55.56)
0.784
Number of seizures (median (IQR))
4 (3–5)
4 (3–5)
0.986
Number of antiepileptic drugs in use (median (IQR))
2 (2–3)
2 (2–3)
0.829
SBP (mmHg, median (IQR))
116 (103–121)
111 (108–120)
0.696
DBP (mmHg, median (IQR))
73 (69–76)
72 (68–79)
0.945
Note: aMann–Whitney -test for comparison of medians, test for comparison of proportions. bSeizure type was based on ILAE 2017. TEA: thread-embedding acupuncture; STEA: sham thread-embedding acupuncture; SBP: systolic blood pressure; DBP: diastolic blood pressure; BMI: body mass index; IQR: interquartile range; SD: standard deviation.
