Author(s): KANEKO, Y., KAYOKO, N., OKAMOTO, K., AIZAWA, I., MITSUYAMA, Y., Institution: TOKYO MEDICAL UNIVERSITY, Country: JAPAN, Abstract-ID: 441

INTRODUCTION:
Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) typically begins to develop 12-24 hours after the exercise and may increase between 24-72 hours. Many symptoms are observed with DOMS such as swelling, temporary reduction in a joint’s range of motion, tenderness to the touch, and temporary reduction in strength of the affected muscles that may interfere athletes’ performance. Recently acupuncture is known to alleviate pain (e.g. lower back pain) as treatment modality and we hypothesized that it may alleviate DOMS as well. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of press tack acupuncture needle on DOMS induced by elbow flexion/extension exercise.
METHODS:
Subjects were 15 healthy male and female (38+/-10.1yrs) and randomized to press tack acupuncture needle (Ac) group, sham acupuncture (Sm, no needle, only adhesive tape) group, and no treatment (NT) group. Ac (length: 0.6mm) were applied with adhesive tapes on 6 sites of biceps brachii. Sm were applied on same sites as Ac. NT received no intervention. Both practitioner and subjects were asked which intervention they were applied or received. The maximum voluntary construction (MVC) of elbow flexion on non-dominant arm was measured by strain gauge in order to determine exercise load to induce DOMS. The subjects performed 2 sets of elbow flexion/extension exercise at 70%MVC until they could not continue the exercise with 2 minutes interval between each set. Ac and Sm were removed after the exercise. Subjects were measured their DOMS at 24, 48, and 72 hours after the exercise by visual analog scale (VAS). Kappa coefficients were used to evaluate whether blinding was successful, and the change of VAS was analyzed by repeated 2-way ANOVA.
RESULTS:
Kappa coefficients of practitioner and subjects were -0.12, -0.19 respectively which meant the blinding was almost perfectly successful. Every group had the most pain at 24 hours after the exercise, then decreased as time passed; NT: 41.2+/-31.2(24h), 34.0+/-31.2(48h), 12.8+/-16.2(72h), Sm: 19.2+/-13.1(24h), 16.7+/-6.0(48h), 7.3+/-2.3(72h), Ac: 20.8+/-12.1(24h), 11.3+/-8.3(48h), 4.5+/-4.2(72h). VAS of DOMS decreased significantly as time passed (p<0.001) while there were no differences among 3 groups. For Intra-group analysis, there were significant changes between VAS of 24h vs 72h and 48h vs 72h in NT group (p=0.018, p=0.003, respectively) while no change was observed in Ac and Sm group.
CONCLUSION:
Neither practitioner nor subjects recognized which intervention they were applied/received. It seemed both Ac and Sm intervention suppressed the increase of DOMS at 24h which lead no significant difference between later evaluation (48h and 72h) while there was a significant decrease of VAS in NT group. It is suggested that phycological effect, or tactile sensation evoked by adhesive tape may influence subjective pain of DOMS.