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 3

Heart rate and heart rate variability.

Stage	HR (bpm) (median (IQR))			value^b		HRV (ms) (median (IQR))			value^b
	TEA	STEA	value^a	TEA	STEA	TEA	STEA	value^a	TEA	STEA
T0	70 (65–78)	71 (67–76)	0.972			36 (28–45)	35 (28–46)	0.802
T1	70 (66–76)	71 (68–76)	0.697	0.772	0.517	38 (28–45)	35 (28–46)	0.634	0.491	0.666
T2	69 (63–78)	71 (66–75)	0.911	0.942	0.159	39 (30–45)	36 (29–45)	0.467	0.075	0.090
T3	67 (62–75)	69 (66–73)	0.238	0.005	0.061	41 (31–45)	37 (30–45)	0.573	0.016	0.070
T4	65 (63–76)	71 (68–75)	0.203	0.018	0.324	42 (32–45)	38 (32–45)	0.521	0.008	0.053

Note: HR: heart rate; HRV: heart rate variability; IQR: interquartile range; TEA: thread-embedding acupuncture; STEA: sham thread-embedding acupuncture; T0: baseline; T1-T3: intervention; T4: follow-up. ^aMann–Whitney -test for comparison of medians between the TEA and sham TEA groups. ^bWilcoxon signed rank-sum test for comparison of median changes from baseline to each stage (T1–T4) in the TEA group and STEA group.