Ultrasound Examination of Inguinal Lymph Node Used to Evaluate the Effect of Acupuncture on Knee Osteoarthritis

Overview

Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a major public health problem among the elderly and is associated with considerable disability. Previous studies on the pathogenesis of this disease mainly focus on cartilage degeneration, but lack of attention to synovitis lesions, and even believe that it is a secondary change in the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis.In recent years, a large number of studies at home and abroad have pointed out that the occurrence and development of knee osteoarthritis are accompanied by synovitis at each stage, and synovial lesions may be the primary manifestation of knee osteoarthritis and affect the evolution of knee osteoarthritis.To this end, some scholars proposed that synovitis lesions as a starting point, may be a new target for the treatment of knee osteoarthritis.

Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a major public health problem among the elderly and is associated with considerable disability.Under normal circumstances, synovial fluid in the knee joint cavity is absorbed by lymphatic vessels, and the balance of secretion and absorption of synovial fluid in the knee joint is maintained by the lymphatic system. When there is some kinds of injury of the knee joint synovial received cartilage stimulate, stimulate the synovial vasodilation, synovial cell proliferation activity, produce a large number of joint synovial fluid and secrete a large number of inflammatory liquid, lymphatic metabolism disorder, make joint cavity inflammatory liquid secretion is greater than the absorption, due to the repeated joint fluid absorption and secretion, articular synovial hyperplasia gradually, eventually lost its normal function, a swelling in the knee joint, and the content of inflammatory cytokines in joint fluid, obvious rise, stimulate the immersion in the subchondral bone nerve pain in synovial fluid.In the formation of inflammatory response, the pressure difference between the tissue fluid and the lymphatic vessels promotes the increase of lymphatic reflux, while the input lymphatic vessels tend to converge to the drainage lymph nodes in different regions.Therefore, the observation of changes in lymphatic reflux is more conducive to the evaluation of synovial inflammation and the occurrence of lymph node metastasis. Therefore, regional drainage lymph node metastasis can also be used as an important biological indicator for the evaluation of prognosis and the formulation of treatment strategies. Acupuncture could be a promising treatment option for knee OA due to the effectiveness of the pain relief and the rarity of adverse effects. In order to get some more reliable data to confirm acupuncture effectiveness on KOA, a long-term follow up interventional study with clear design, standard criteria, control group, will be started to confirm the effects of long term for acupuncture treatment.