Electroacupuncture alleviates symptoms and identifies a potential microbial biomarker in patients with constipation-predominant irritable bowel syndrome

Table 4 Effects of electroacupuncture on clinical, biological, and heart rate variability outcomes in irritable bowel syndrome with predominant constipation responders at baseline, post-treatment, and one-month follow-up

Outcome measures	IBS-C responders (n = 13)			P value
	Pre-treatment	Post-treatment	Follow-up
Clinical score
IBS-SSS score	280.00 (205.00-314.50)	30.00a (0.00-85.00)	45.00a (27.50-82.50)	< 0.001
IBS-QoL	89.00 (77.00-103.00)	55.50a (49.25-80.50)	47.00a (44.00-56.50)	< 0.001
Memory part
MoCA	25.30 ± 2.62	27.76 ± 1.69a	28.00 ± 1.35a	< 0.001
MMSE	26.76 ± 1.78	27.00 ± 1.58	27.53 ± 1.45	0.284
Emotional part
Anxiety	9.30 ± 3.63	4.61 ± 2.18a	5.08 ± 3.67a	< 0.001
Depression	4.53 ± 2.53	2.76 ± 2.35	3.00 ± 3.16	0.060
Laboratory
Cortisol level (μg/dL)	10.70 (8.60-14.45)	12.30 (9.07-19.65)	9.81 (7.65-18.30)	0.774
MDA level (nmol/mL)	382.75 ± 86.50	608.63 ± 141.19a	484.17 ± 132.80	< 0.001
Serotonin level (μg/dL)	1.60 (0.62-2.78)	2.86 (1.50-3.73)	0.92 (0.77-2.23)	0.251
Heart rate variability
LF	22.08 ± 4.26	21.20 ± 5.51	20.16 ± 5.61	0.465
HF	15.20 ± 5.07	14.24 ± 5.10	13.05 ± 4.56	0.398
LF/HF	1.46 (1.26-1.53)	1.54 (1.13-1.94)	1.45 (1.34-1.81)	0.833

^aP < 0.05 vs pretreatment.

Data are presented as mean ± SD for parametric variables (numerical data), and median (IQR) for non-parametric variables. Multiple comparisons were conducted using repeated measures ANOVA with Bonferroni correction for parametric variables, and Kruskal-Wallis test with Dunn’s post hoc for non-parametric variables. HF: High frequency; IBS: Irritable bowel syndrome; IBS-SSS: Irritable bowel syndrome symptom severity scale scores; IBS-QoL: Irritable bowel syndrome quality of life; LF: Low frequency; MoCA: Montreal Cognitive Assessment; MMSE: Mini-Mental State Examination; MDA: Malondialdehyde; Pre-treatment: IBS-C patients before acupuncture; Post-treatment: IBS-C patients on the last day of acupuncture; Follow-up: IBS-C patients after acupuncture for one month.