• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.1101-1111
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• 2019

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate quality of reporting acupuncture intervention for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) based on the STRICTA and CONSORT guidelines Methods: We searched for randomized controlled trial studies of acupuncture treatment for MCI in the MEDLINE (PubMed) database. Once the online search was completed, studies were selected manually by the inclusion criteria, and the selected studies were evaluated by STRICTA and CONSORT guidelines. Results: Five studies were included. The most frequently selected points for acupuncture treatment of MCI were on the head, such as GV20, EX-HN1, GV24, and GB20. By STRICTA guidelines, all items from STRICTA were reported except three items on the checklist. By CONSORT guidelines, apart from six items which were not available, quality assessment was performed with 31 items. Eighteen items were reported by 80% of the studies. Four items were reported by 40% of the studies and another four items were reported by 20% of the studies. One item was not reported in all studies. Conclusion: Most items were reported by STRICTA guidelines, whereas many items were insufficiently reported based on CONSORT guidelines. This needs to be considered in future RCTs of acupuncture treatment for MCI.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.224-232
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to assess the quality of the case reports in the Journal of Acupuncture Research (JAR). All case reports were retrieved from November 2017 to June 2020. There were 19 case reports included in this assessment based on the case report (CARE) guidelines and case report and standards for reporting interventions in clinical trials of acupuncture (STRICTA) guidelines. The overall quality of reporting was relatively high (83.08% on Case Report guidelines and 77.78% on Standards for Reporting Interventions in Clinical Trials of Acupuncture guidelines), but several crucial items remained substantially underreported, such as identifying as a case report (keywords), patient information and perspective, clinical findings, diagnostic assessment, and intervention information. In 18 out of 19 included case reports of acupuncture-related interventions, several items remained considerably underreported such as acupuncture regimen variation, depth of needle insertion, response sought, and experience of acupuncturists. In the classification by disease, condition, or syndrome, 13 out of 19 included case reports were for musculoskeletal disorders (68.4%), which is the main clinical medical field of Korean medicine services. The results of this study may help develop more appropriate reporting guidelines for case reports published in JAR.

• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.19-35
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• 2019

Objectives : The purpose of this study is to review which acupoints and meridians are selected to treat visceral pain in articles published in international journals and to investigate quality of reporting acupuncture intervention according to the STRICTA guidelines. Methods : Electrical and hand search were conducted in PubMed, EMBASE, MEDLINE, and Cochrane Library for acupuncture studies on visceral pain in human and animals. Reporting quality of intervention was evaluated using the revised STRICTA guidelines. Results : We included 51 articles (7 clinical studies and 44 animal studies) in this study. The most frequently adopted meridians and acupoints were Stomach meridian, Spleen meridian, Conception Vessel meridian, and ST36, CV4, SP6, LI4, PC6, SP9, ST25, ST37 in clinical studies. In animal studies, Stomach meridian, Conception Vessel meridian, Pericardium meridian and ST36, ST37, CV12, PC6 were most frequently used. Animal studies showed significantly lower quality of reporting compared to clinical studies. According to the analysis on the effect of year of publication of articles, announcement of STRICTA guidelines did not improve the quality of reporting for studies on visceral pain. Conclusions : These results suggest that both proximal and distal acupoints based on meridian theory were used to study the underlying mechanisms of visceral pain both in human and animal studies. Guidelines of acupuncture intervention reporting for animal study is necessary to improve the quality of evidence, and it will also allow us the integrative understanding of the mechanisms and clinical effects of acupuncture treatment in human and animal.

• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.1-23
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• 2010

Objectives and methods : The Standards for Reporting Interventions in Clinical Trials of Acupuncture (STRICTA) were published in five journals in 2001 and 2002. These guidelines, in the form of a checklist and explanations for use by authors and journal editors, were designed to improve reporting of acupuncture trials, particularly the interventions, thereby facilitating their interpretation and replication. Subsequent reviews of the application and impact of STRICTA have highlighted the value of STRICTA as well as scope for improvements and revision. To manage the revision process a collaboration between the STRICTA Group, the CONSORT Group, and the Chinese Cochrane Centre was developed in 2008. An expert panel with 47 participants was convened that provided electronic feedback on a revised draft of the checklist. At a subsequent face-to-face meeting in Freiburg, a group of 21 participants further revised the STRICTA checklist and planned dissemination. Results : The new STRICTA checklist, which is an official extension of CONSORT, includes six items and 17 sub-items. These set out reporting guidelines for the acupuncture rationale, the details of needling, the treatment regimen, other components of treatment, the practitioner background, and the control or comparator interventions. In addition, and as part of this revision process, the explanations for each item have been elaborated, and examples of good reporting for each item are provided. In addition, the word "controlled" in STRICTA is replaced by "clinical", to indicate that STRICTA is applicable to a broad range of clinical evaluation designs, including uncontrolled outcome studies and case reports. Conclusions : It is intended that the revised STRICTA, in conjunction with both the main CONSORT Statement and extension for nonpharmacologic treatment, will raise the quality of reporting of clinical trials of acupuncture.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.134-154
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• 2002

Acupuncture treatment and control group interventions in parallel-group randomised trials of acupuncture are not always precisely reported. In an attempt to improve standards, an international group of experienced acupuncturists and researchers devised a set of recommendations, designating them STRICTA : STandards for Reporting Interventions in Controlled Trials of Acupuncture. In a further consensus-building round, the editors of several journals helped redraft the recommendations. These follow the CONSORT format, acting as an extension of the CONSORT guidelines for the specific requirements of acupuncture studies. Participating journals are publishing the STRICTA recommendations and requesting prospective authors to adhere to them when preparing reports for publication. Other journals are invited to adopt these recommendations. The intended outcome is that interventions in controlled trials of acupuncture will be more adequately reported, thereby facilitating an improvement in critical appraisal, analysis and replication of trials.

• Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.49-63
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• 2021

Objectives This study aimed to investigate the trend in treating fracture with acupuncture and to evaluate the quality of case reports. Methods All case reports of fractures treated with acupuncture were extracted from four Korean web databases. We classified these studies by five fracture sites and investigated frequently used meridian and acupoint, outcome measurements, treatment period. And we assessed the quality of the case reports by the STandards for Reporting Interventions in Clinical Trials of Acupuncture (STRICTA) guidelines. Results A total of 33 case reports were included. The outcome measurements were divided into six categories, and the outcome measurements used in more than three studies showed improvement in patient symptoms. The mainly used meridians for each fracture site were as follows: chest and abdomen (GB, LR, CV), back (BL, GB), upper limb (LI, TE), lower Limb (GB, ST, BL, SP). The most commonly used acupoints for each fracture site were as follows: chest and abdomen (Ashi points, GB24, GB25, GB26, LR13, LR14, CV16, CV17, CV18, CV19), back (BL23, BL24, BL25, BL26, BL40, BL51, BL52, BL60, GB34), upper limb (LI4, LI10, LI11, TE3), lower limb (GB34, GB40). According to the STRICTA guidelines, more than 54.54% of the reports were found to be 'not reported' or 'not sufficient' in the following categories: 'response sought', 'description of participating acupuncturist', and 'number of needle insertions per subject per session'. Conclusions The meridians and acupuncture points frequently used for acupuncture treatment of fractures were near the fracture site. Future clinical studies involving acupuncture must be reported in accordance with the STRICTA guidelines to improve transparency and uniformity.

• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.131-144
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• 2020

Objectives : The aim of this study is to analyze the details of acupuncture treatment methods and the reporting quality of acupuncture on Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS). Methods : Search was conducted in Pubmed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library for acupuncture studies on CTS. The reporting quality of acupuncture treatment was assessed using the following guidelines: Standards for Reporting Interventions in Clinical Trials of Acupuncture (STRICTA) for analyzing the method of acupuncture treatment, Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) for analyzing study design and study process, and Risk of Bias (ROB) for analyzing bias. The number of reported items was calculated and evaluated as a proportion. The reported proportion of each study was classified into three grades: Grade A (% score ≥75), Grade B (50≤ % score <75), and Grade C (% score <50). Results : A total of 9 Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) were included in this study. All trials reported 12 items (66.67%) on average in STRICTA guidelines. Five studies were conducted with manual acupuncture and 3 studies were conducted with electroacupuncture. PC7 (Daereung) was most frequently used to treat CTS. In STRICTA guideline evaluation, 3 studies were classified as Grade A, 5 studies were classified as Grade B, and 1 study was classified as Grade C. In the CONSORT statement assessment, all trials reported an average of 20.56 items. Of the 9 RCTs, 6 studies were classified as Grade B and 3 studies were classified as Grade C. In ROB assessment, most studies showed a low (63.49%) or unclear (26.98%) risk of bias. The selective reporting bias and the incomplete outcome data bias were found to have the lowest risk of bias, and the allocation concealment of selection bias was found to have the most unclear risk of bias. Conclusions : Recent acupuncture studies on CTS showed moderate reporting quality. However, more detailed reports on acupuncture are still needed to establish more solid evidence of acupuncture treatment.