Moxibustion therapy in Chinese patients with ankylosing spondylitis: A randomized controlled pilot trial

Abstract

Abstract Introduction Moxibustion has been widely used in East Asia to manage patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS). This study aimed to evaluate the short-term effectiveness and safety of moxibustion therapy for treating AS. Methods This single-blind randomized controlled pilot study was conducted from August 2018 to January 2019 on 76 AS patients, who were randomly allocated to either a control (n\u202f=\u202f32) or an intervention group (n\u202f=\u202f30). The control group received conventional intervention alone, while the intervention group received in-patient moxibustion therapy in addition to their conventional intervention for four weeks. Musculoskeletal BATH scores, HRQoL(health-related quality of life), and blood samples were assessed at baseline and at the endpoint-week 6. Results Moxibustion significantly improved physical function and decreased disease activity, according to the BASFI (bath ankylosing spondylitis functional index) and BASDAI (bath ankylosing spondylitis disease activity) indexes, respectively (p\u202f \u202f0.05). Additionally, moxibustion produced significant improvement in some domains of the SF-36 (Short form 36 health survey) HRQoL and ASQOL (ankylosing spondylitis quality of life) scale (p\u202f \u202f0.05). Conclusion Moxibustion in combination with conventional therapies may exhibit beneficial effects for AS patients in the short-term, such as improved physical function and health-related quality of life and decreased disease activity. However, these positive results should be interpreted with caution, as most of the included outcomes were limited to self-assessment tools, and there were no appropriate placebo controls or long-term follow-ups. Further research is needed that would utilize an appropriate moxibustion placebo device and include more objective outcomes, which could evaluate the long-term effectiveness of moxibustion interventions on AS.