• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.19-25
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• 1992

The pressure pain thresholds of head and neck muscles of patients suffering from tensiontype headache220, all female, ages ranged from 13 to 50 years (28.4$\pm$9.6) and 39 healthy controls, all female, ages ranged from 14 to 46 years (24.4$\pm$9.2) were recorded by the electronic algometer (Electyronic Algometer Type I, Somedic, Stockholm, Sweden). And the obtained results were as follows : 1. The pressure pain thresholds of patient group were lower than those of controls in superior sternocleidomastoid muscle, middle sternocleidomastoid muscle, and trapezius insertion muscle (P<0.001) 2. The pressure pain thresholds of patient group were not different from those of controls in anterior temporal, middle temporal, posterior temporal, deep masseter, anterior masseter, inferior masseter, medial pterygoid, posterior digastric, splenius capitus and upper trapezius muscle (P>0.05). 3. Seventy-one percent of tension-type headache patients had more than one muscle, of whicb pressure pain threshold was lowered significantly (less than mean of control - 1.5SD). 4. The pressure pain thresholds of head and neck muscles should be considered as a criterion for the diagnosis of tension-type headache.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.91-97
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• 2011

Objectives : The purpose of 29 case series is to report the possibility that a hand acupuncture is effective in relieving headache. Methods : After approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB), I analyzed 29 cases medical records of outpatients with headache, who visited ${\bigcirc}{\bigcirc}$ oriental medical hospital from December 2008 to December 2010, who have taken a hand acupuncture's treatment without other intervention, and who were diagnosed with one disease of international classification of headache disease second version (ICHD-2). The data was analyzed with Wilcoxon signed rank test to determine whether a hand acupuncture's treatment differed between before and after treatment's Visual Analogue Scale(VAS) according to types of headache and syndrome differentiation. Statistics program was used SPSS 18.0. Differences were considered significant at P<0.05. Results : The VAS of patients with headache was reduced after treatment of hand acupuncture from $6.57{\pm}2.04$ to $2.90{\pm}2.04$ for overall headache, from $6.32{\pm}2.05$ to $2.47{\pm}2.03$ for tension-type headache(P<0.001), from $7.10{\pm}2.18$ to $3.70{\pm}1.77$ for migraine(P<0.001), and from $6.00{\pm}1.41$ to $2.50{\pm}3.54$ for headache unspecified. A hand acupuncture produced a decrease in VAS of both ascendant hyperactivity of liver yang(P<0.001) and phlegm turbidity according to syndrome differentiation(P=0.002). No adverse event were encountered in any of the patients. Conclusions : It is suggested that a hand acupuncture may be effective in relieving headache, and could be applicable to first choice of acupuncture treatment for headache.