Early intervention improves clinical responses to seasonal allergic rhinitis by stimulation in sphenopalatine ganglion (Xinwu acupoint).

Objective: To examine the efficacy of early intervention (4 weeks before pollen dispersal) with sphenopalatine ganglion (Xinwu acupoint) stimulation in patients with allergies after the onset of seasonal allergic rhinitis (SAR).

Methods: This is a prospective, randomized and unblinded half-open study. Forty-one SAR volunteers were randomly assigned to either the sphenopalatine ganglion (SPG) acupuncture plus supplementary acupuncture (SPG group) or the sham-SPG acupuncture plus supplementary acupuncture (SA group) stimulation 4 weeks before the onset of allergy season.

Epidemiology of Moyamoya disease in China: A nationwide hospital-based study.

Background: The national epidemiologic data in mainland China is still absent for moyamoya disease (MMD).

Methods: This study was a nationwide hospital-based observational retrospective study to estimate epidemiological characteristics of MMD. The data was based on the Hospital Quality Monitoring System (HQMS), a national database which covers all tertiary hospitals in mainland China.