Acupuncture as an alternative or in addition to conventional treatment for chronic non-specific low back pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Conventional therapies (CTs), pharmacological (PH) and non-pharmacological (NPH), do not always achieve benefits in the treatment of chronic low back pain (CLBP). We assessed efficacy and safety of acupuncture for CLBP as alternative or addition to CT.

Methods: We included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) comparing acupuncture alone or in combination with CT to CT.

Determination of the presence of hyaluronic acid in preparations containing amino acids: the molecular weight characterization.

Several pharmaceutical preparations contain hyaluronic acid in the presence of a large variety of low molecular weight charged molecules like amino acids. In these mixtures, it is particularly difficult to determine the concentration and the molecular weight of the hyaluronic acid fragments. In fact zwitterionic compounds in high concentration behave by masking the hyaluronic acid due to the electrostatic interactions between amino acids and hyaluronic acid.