Forty-six cases of vertebrobasilar insufficiency treated by acupuncture plus intravenous infusion of ligustrazine.

OBJECTIVE To observe the therapeutic effect of acupuncture plus Ligustrazine on vertebrobasilar insufficiency (VBI) by transcranial Doppler (TCD) sonography. METHODS 86 VBI patients including 56 cases of low flow rate velocity type (LFVT) and 30 cases of high flow velocity type (HFVT) were randomly divided into Ligustrazine group (26 LFRT and 14 HFVT) and acupuncture plus Ligustrazine group (30 LFVT and 16 HFVT). The blood flow velocity (BFV) of vertebral artery (VA) and basilar artery (BA) in systole before and after treatment was measured with TCD and therapeutic effects were evaluated after 10 days' treatment in the two groups. RESULTS In the acupuncture plus Ligustrazine group, the total effective rate was 93.3% and 88.5% in cases of LFVT and HFVT respectively, and BFV of VA and BA increased in LFVT patients while that in HFVT patients decreased significantly (P<0.05 or P<0.01). CONCLUSION Owing to its dual regulation on blood flow of VA and BA, the therapeutic effect of acupuncture plus Ligustrazine was better than that of simple Ligustrazine.