Objective: To study the changes in median frequency (MF) from a surface electromyogram of skeletal muscles and functional assessment of chronic illness therapy (FACIT) figure scale scores for patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) before and after Tuina treatment.
Methods: A controlled clinical trial was adopted. Thirty-two patients suffering from CFS were enrolled according to the inclusion criteria from outpatient department of Shanghai Yueyang Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine in China; thirty normal people whose gender, age, height and body mass were concordant with the CFS patients were selected as the normal group. Surface electromyography was used to detect the median frequency (MF) of biceps, quadriceps, and waist and back muscle before and after a 20-day course of treatment. CFS patients also were asked to fill out the figure scale of FACIT to evaluate the degree of fatigue.
Results: There was no significant difference in surface electromyography MF of myoelectric signal of biceps and quadriceps between CFS and normal person; however, the waist and back muscle MF of the normal person was significantly lower than that of the CFS patients. Before and after treatment, there were no obvious changes in the MF of myoelectric signals of all muscles. Tuina significantly decreased the scale score of FACIT.
Conclusion: Tuina can improve the symptom of patients with CFS.