Background: Acupuncture has been widely applied to relieve knee osteoarthritis (KOA) in many countries. However, the bibliometric analysis of the global use of acupuncture on KOA is largely unknown. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the current status and trends of the global use of acupuncture on KOA in recent 10 years by using CiteSpace (5.6.R3). Methods: Publications regarding acupuncture therapy for treating KOA between 2010 and 2019 were extracted from the Web of Science database. CiteSpace was used to analyze the number of publications, countries, institutions, journals, authors, cited references and keywords by using standard bibliometric indicators. Results: A total of 343 publications were retrieved from 2010 to 2019. The total number of publications continually increased over the past four years, and the most active journals, countries, institutions and authors in the field of acupuncture therapy on patients with KOA were identified. The Evid Based Complement Alternat Med (28) was the most prolific journal, and the Ann Intern Med (202) was the most cited journal. The most productive country and institution in this field was China (115) and University of York (18), respectively. Hugh Macpherson (18) was the most prolific author and Witt C ranked the first in the cited authors. In the ranking of frequency in cited reference, the first article was published by Scharf HP (54). The keyword of ‘randomized controlled trial’ ranked first for research developments with the highest citation burst (3.9486). Besides, there were three main frontiers in keywords for KOA research, including ‘research method, ‘age’ and ‘measure of intervention’. Conclusion: The findings from this bibliometric study provide current status and trends in clinical research of acupuncture therapy on patients with KOA over the past ten years, which may help researchers identify hot topics and explore new directions for future research in this field.

Background: Accumulate evidence indicated that moxibustion has a positive effect on pain treatment. However, the bibliometric analysis of moxibustion on pain remains uncertain. Herein, this study aimed to explore the current hotspots and the research trends over the past decade to bring a great panorama in this field. Methods: Publications were retrieved from the database Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) related to moxibustion therapy for pain treatment from January 1, 2012, to December 31, 2021. CiteSpace and Excel were applied to analyze the volume of publications, journals, cited journals, dual-map analysis, countries, institutes, authors, references, and keywords with citation bursts. Results: A total of 360 publications were retrieved from 2012 to 2021. The annual number of publications increased steadily with some fluctuations over the past 10 years. “The Evid Based Complement Alternat Med” and “the Gut” were the top-cited journals in frequency and centrality. China and Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine were the most prolific country and institutions, respectively. Among authors, Huangan Wu was the most active author with the highest cited frequency. Jun Xiong, Fanrong Liang and Guixing Xu held the articles with higher centrality. In the ranking of frequency and centrality in cited references, the top one was the article published by Shamseer L and Deng HY, respectively. “Acupuncture” was the keyword with the highest frequency. Pain disease (including rheumatoid arthritis, knee osteoarthritis, herpes zoster), research method (including randomized controlled trial), and risk (including quality of life, economic burden, physical and psychological problems) were the hotspots and frontier trends in this field. Conclusion: This bibliometric study reveals the current status and research trend in the treatment of pain with moxibustion. The formulation with bibliometric analysis further elicits hot spots and frontier issues in this field.

Background: Evidence has shown that dry needling (DN) is effective for myofascial pain syndrome (MPS). However, bibliometrics has rarely been used to analyze the literature related to DN for MPS. The purpose of this study is to provide a systematic overview of global frontiers and research hotspots of DN in the treatment of MPS from 2000 to 2022. Methods: A search was conducted on Web of Science Core Collection (WoS CC) for literature on DN for MPS from 2000 to 2022. Based on the basic information provided by WoS CC, CiteSpace software was used to conduct bibliometric analysis of the countries, institutions, categories, journals, authors, references and keywords involved in this topic. Results: A total of 458 papers were obtained, with the number of publications increasing over time. Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies (31) was the most productive journal based on the number of publications, while Arch Phys Med Rehab (329) was the most co-cited journal. The most productive countries and institutions were USA (112) and Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (39), respectively. Fernandez-de-las-penas, Cesar has the highest number of publications (24) and Simons DG, who was an author with the highest number of citations (250). The article published by Gattie et al (co-citations: 65), and Mejuto-Vazquez et al (centrality: 0.36) were the most representative and symbolic. Based on the co-cited literature and keywords, myofascial trigger point, research methods, and acupuncture were the hot research topics and trends in the field. Conclusion: The current status and trends in clinical research of DN for MPS are revealed according to the results of this bibliometric study, which may facilitate researchers to identify hot topics and new directions for future research.

Background: Tenosynovitis of the long head of the biceps (LHB) brachii is a common disease in patients over 40 years old. It can always result in chronic anterior shoulder pain and limited function. Acupuncture is one of most popular conservative treatment methods, and increasing studies indicate that it has remarkable therapeutic effects on the tenosynovitis of LHB brachii. However, the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for treating tenosynovitis of LHB brachii remain largely uncertain. In our study, we will perform the first systematic review and meta-analysis to explore the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture on the tenosynovitis of LHB brachii. Methods: We will search the randomized controlled trial (RCT) literatures involving acupuncture for treating tenosynovitis of LHB brachii in eight electric databases, including PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), Wanfang Database, and Technology Periodical Database (VIP). We will define the visual analog scale (VAS), the Melle score of shoulder joint functional activity, and the ability assessment of daily living activities (ADL) as the primary outcomes. Besides quality of life, adverse events caused by acupuncture will be regarded as the secondary outcomes. Quality assessment of the included studies will be independently performed according to the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool. Meanwhile, the level of evidence for results will be assessed by using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) method. All analyses will be conducted by using the RevMan software V5.3. Results: From the study, we will ascertain the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture treatment on tenosynovitis of LHB brachii. Conclusion: The conclusion of this study will confirm the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture in the treatment of tenosynovitis of LHB brachii, which can provide new evidence to guide appropriate interventions on tenosynovitis of LHB brachii with acupuncture in the future. Ethics and dissemination: Ethical approval is not required because no individual patient data are collected. This review will be published in a peer-reviewed journal and presented at an international academic conference for dissemination. Trial registration: PROSPERO registration number CRD42020167434. Registered on April 28, 2020.

In Reply: Research Trends of Acupuncture Therapy on Knee Osteoarthritis from 2010 to 2019: A Bibliometric Analysis (Letter from Luo et al) [Response To Letter]

Visceral pain caused by inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) greatly diminishes the quality of life in affected patients. Yet, the mechanism of how IBD causes visceral pain is currently not fully understood. Previous studies have suggested that the central nervous system (CNS) and gut-brain axis (GBA) play an important role in IBD-inducing visceral pain. As one of the treatments for IBD, electroacupuncture (EA) has been used to treat various types of pain and gastrointestinal diseases in clinical practice. However, whether EA relieves the visceral pain of IBD through the gut-brain axis has not been confirmed. To verify the relationship between visceral pain and CNS, the following experiments were conducted. ¹H-NMR analysis was performed on the prefrontal cortex (PFC) tissue obtained from IBD rat models to determine the link between the metabolites and their role in EA treatment against visceral pain. Western blot assay was employed for detecting the contents of glutamate transporter excitatory amino acid transporters 2 (EAAT2) and the glutamate receptor N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) to verify whether EA treatment can alleviate neurotoxic symptoms induced by abnormal increases of glutamate. Study results showed that the glutamate content was significantly increased in the PFC of TNBS-induced IBD rats. This change was reversed after EA treatment. This process was associated with increased EAAT2 expression and decreased expression of NMDA receptors in the PFC. In addition, an increase in intestinal glutamic-metabolizing bacteria was observed. In conclusion, this study suggests that EA treatment can relieve visceral pain by reducing glutamine toxicity in the PFC, and serves an alternative clinical utility.