A Data Mining Study for Analysis of Acupoint Selection and Combinations in Acupuncture Treatment of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Abstract

Background

Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most prevalent upper limb compressive neuropathy. A considerable number of clinical trials and meta-analyses have provided evidence supporting the effectiveness of acupuncture in treating CTS. Nevertheless, the ideal choice of acupoints remains ambiguous.

Objective

A data mining analysis was conducted with the objective of determining the most effective acupoint combinations and selection for CTS.

Methods

A search was conducted across seven Chinese and English electronic bibliographic databases spanning from their inception to March 2023. Selected were clinical trials that evaluated the efficacy of acupuncture therapy for CTS, with or without randomised controlled methods. Data extraction mainly included acupoint prescriptions. Information such as first author, study design and study setting were also extracted. The principal outcomes comprised the clinical manifestations linked to CTS. Statistical descriptions were generated using Excel 2019. The analysis of association rules was conducted using SPSS Modeler 18.0. Using SPSS Statistics 26.0, exploratory factor analysis and cluster analysis were conducted.

Results

142 trials (including 86 RCTs and 56 non RCTs) were identified, and 193 groups of effective prescriptions involving 68 acupoints were extracted. The most frequently used acupoints were Da-ling (PC7), Nei-guan (PC6), He-gu (LI4), Wai-guan (TE5), and Yang-xi (LI5). The most frequently used meridians were the pericardial meridian and the large intestine meridian. The majority of special acupoints used were Five-shu points and Yuan-source points, with acupoints on the upper limbs being the most frequently used. The core acupoint groups were analyzed and 11 groups of association rules, 8 factors, and 5 effective cluster groups were obtained.

Conclusion

The evidence-based acupoint selection and combinations of acupuncture therapy for carpal tunnel syndrome were provided by the findings of this study.

Keywords:

• acupuncture
• carpal tunnel syndrome
• data mining
• descriptive statistics
• association rule analysis
• exploratory factor analysis
• cluster analysis

Abbreviations

CTS, Carpal tunnel syndrome; CNKI, China National Knowledge Infrastructure; CBM, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database; VIP, Chongqing VIP Database.

Data Sharing Statement

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article and supplementary materials “Supplementary Table 1”.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Dr Xinyi Zhao for her help in this study.

Author Contributions

Each of the authors has made noteworthy contributions to the work being reported, encompassing the areas of conceptualization, research design, execution, analysis, and interpretation, or a combination thereof. They have been involved in the drafting, revising, or reviewing of the article, have given their approval for the version to be published, and have consented to submitting the manuscript to the journal. Furthermore, they have agreed to take responsibility for all aspects of the work.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Additional information

Funding

This study is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No: 82260983); The Special Project of TCM Talent Team Construction of Guangxi Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine—Prof. Yushan Fan Guangxi Famous TCM Inheritance Studio (No: 2023017-05-07); Innovation Project of Guangxi Graduate Education (No: YCBZ2023149, No: YCSW2022351, No: YCSZ2022009).