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Status unknownNCT05075551Updated Feb 28, 2023

Analyzing the Brain Alterations of Acupuncture on Patients With CP/CPPS Evaluated by fMRI

An interventional study of Acupuncture and Sham acupuncture in Chronic Prostatitis With Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome, sponsored by Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Status unknown at 1 site in China. Open to male participants aged 20 Years to 50 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2023-02-28.

Sponsored by Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment

The sponsor has not verified this record recently (last verified Jan 2023), so the status shown — last known as Active, not recruiting — may be out of date.
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
500
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
20 Years to 50 Years
Sex
Male
01

Study summary

Chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS) is one of the most common diseases in urology, but its pathogenesis remains unclear and the effective therapy lacks. As a kind of chronic pain which the patients suffered for more than 3 months, CP/CPPS could be alleviated by acupuncture. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and higher magnetic field strengths could enable scientists to investigate the brain accurately and non-invasively during every stage of chronic pain.To avoid placebo effect, sham acupuncture would be also enrolled.Herein, by the utilization of fMRI in resting-state, we investigated the influence on patients' brain alterations after the patients accepted the treatment of acupuncture.

Read the detailed description

A two (participant and assessor) blind, two-arm parallel, randomized controlled trial will be conducted. Sixty patients with CP/CPPS will be recruited from Huashan Hospital, Shanghai, and thirty healthy volunteers will be recruited as the healthy control group by advertisement. Patients will be randomly assigned into one of two intervention groups: acupuncture group and sham acupuncture group. The ratio of healthy control (n = 30), acupuncture group (n = 30) and sham acupuncture group (n = 30) will be 1:1:1. Sanyinjiao (SP6), Zhibian (BL54), Shenshu (BL23), and Huiyang (BL35) are chosen as acupoints for both acupuncture group and sham acupuncture group (Park sham device). The course of treatment is 2 times a week in three months (totally 24 times). The group of healthy control will get only once fMRI scan while the group of patients will get fMRI scan week 0 (before treatment), week 12 (after treatment) and week 36 (following up). Every time the participants receive the fMRI scan, they will be asked to finish the clinical scales. The primary outcome will be the change in the National Institutes of Health Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index (NIH-CPSI) total score from baseline to week 12 and week 36. Secondary outcomes will include the changes of Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, International Prostate Symptom Score, International Index of Erectile Function, Self-Esteem Scale, Social Support Rating Scale and Numeric Rating Scale and brain functional activated or inactivated regions.

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Conditions studied

  • Chronic Prostatitis With Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome

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Keywords

  • Chronic Prostatitis/Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome
  • Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Acupuncture
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In context

Prostatitis

88 studies on the registry are indexed under Prostatitis; 11 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 500 is above the median of 60 across 73 interventional studies indexed under Prostatitis.

Browse Prostatitis studies →

Lead sponsor

Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine is the lead sponsor of 102 studies on the registry; 20 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

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Who can participate

Ages eligible
20 Years to 50 Years
Sexes eligible
Male
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

(1)The clinical diagnosis of CP/CPPS is exclusionary diagnosis.The main steps of diagnosing CP/CPPS are follwing: T

  1. he chief complaint is long-term recurrent pain or discomfort of lumbosacral and perianal distension in the lower abdomen of the external perineum genital area and the superior pubic area (more than 3 months).
  2. Bacterial prostatitis will be eliminated by routine culture of prostatic fluid and urine culture before and after prostatic massage.
  3. Urinary tract infection will be ruled out by routine urinalysis and sediment examination.

(2)Total score of NIH-CPSI ≥ 15.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

The participants would be excluded if they got any acute or chronic infectious disease, other chronic pain diseases, internal organic diseases, history of malignant tumors, and chronic diseases that might contribute to peripheral nerve injury like diabetes mellitus and hypertension.

Prostate changes will be observed by prostate ultrasound and other urogenital and pelvic space-occupying lesions will be excluded.

of fMRI scan like claustrophobia and denture implantation status are also considered.

Terms in these criteria, in plain language(1)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Contraindication

A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.

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Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Double (Participant, Outcomes assessor)
Enrollment
500 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Acupuncture

    Before participants accept the treatment, they are acquired to finish the clinical scales (including NIH-CPSI scale, HADS, VAS, SSRS, SES, IPSS and QoL) and then get the fMRI scan. Hwato brand disposable acupuncture needles will be used. Sanyinjiao (SP6), Zhibian (BL54), Shenshu (BL23), and Huiyang (BL35) are selected as acupoints. The course of treatment is 2 times a week in three months (totally 24 times). At the ending of the treatment, all the volunteers will be asked to finish the clinical scales and get the fMRI scan again. As the step of following up, all the patients will be asked to finish the clinical scales and get the fMRI scan again to evaluate the efficacy of avoiding the recurrence of acupuncture.

    Device: Acupuncture · Other: fMRI scan

  • Sham comparator
    Sham Acupuncture

    In the sham acupuncture group, these volunteers will receive relatively shallow needling at bilateral sham SP6, BL54, BL23, and BL35. This treatment gets involved in the same duration and frequency of sessions, but the treatment was delivered superficially at non-acupuncture points 10 mm to the lateral of corresponding acupuncture and not above a meridian line (10mm to SP6, BL54, BL23 and BL35). The Hwato brand disposable acupuncture needles will be inserted with a depth of 2-3 mm without any manipulation.The procedure of finishing scales and get fMRI scanning will be the same as the group of acupuncture.

    Device: Sham acupuncture · Other: fMRI scan

Interventions

  • DeviceAcupuncture

    Hwato brand disposable acupuncture needles (size 0.30 × 75mm; size 0.30 × 40mm) will be used.SP6 is on the tibial aspect of the leg, posterior to the medial border of the tibia, 3 cun superior to the prominence of the medial malleolus; BL23 is in the sacral region, in the second posterior sacral foramen; BL54 is in the fourth posterior sacral foramen, 3 cun beside the median sacral crest; BL35 is in the buttock region, 0.5 cun lateral to the extremity of the coccyx.

  • DeviceSham acupuncture

    Hwato brand disposable acupuncture needles (size 0.30 × 75mm; size 0.30 × 40mm) will be used.These volunteers will receive relatively shallow needling at bilateral sham SP6, BL54, BL23 and BL35. This treatment gets involved in the same duration and frequency of sessions, but the treatment was delivered superficially at non-acupuncture points 10 mm to the lateral of corresponding acupuncture and not above a meridian line (10mm to SP6, BL54, BL23 and BL35).The same equipment of fMRI scanner will be used.

  • OtherfMRI scan

    Both two group will get fMRI scan week 0 (before treatment), week 12 (after treatment) and week 36 (following up). The resting-state fMRI data will be obtained by using a 3.0T GE MR 750 MRI scanner with an eight-channel phase array head coil at the Huashan Hospital, Shanghai. The high resolution T1-weighted magnetic resonance images will be collected by a three-dimensional fast spoiled gradient-echo dual-echo sequence \[repetition time (TR) = 8100 ms; echo time (TE) = 3.1 ms; FA = 8 deg; matrix=256 × 256; field of view (FOV)=25.6× 25.6 cm2; slice thickness=1 mm; no gap and 156 slices\]. The whole resting state fMRI data will be acquired by using a gradient-recalled echo-planar imaging pulse sequence (TR/TE = 2,000/30 ms; FA = 90°; acquisition matrix = 64×64; FOV = 22×22 cm2; slice thickness= 4 mm; 43 slices and total 240 time points; no gap).

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What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. The change in the NIH-CPSI total score at the end of week 12 and week 36

    The responder is defined as who has a decline of 6 or more than 6-point from baseline measured by using the National Institutes of Health Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index (NIH-CPSI) , compared with the baseline in week 0.It is because a decline of at least 6 points in NIH-CPSI is acknowledged as the minimal clinically important difference. The NIH-CPSI is a self-assessment form with nine items, which the main components encompass pain with 4 items focused on location, severity and frequency, urinary function embracing one irritative item and one obstructive item, and quality of life impact with 3 items about the effect of symptoms on daily activities. The NIH-CPSI provides a systematized and unanimously accepted outcome measuring tool, and it is widely used in clinical trials, along with in the evidence-based evaluation of treatment effects.

    Time frame: week 0, week 12 and week 36

Secondary outcomes

  1. The alterations in brain of patients with CP/CPPS measured by fMRI when finishing the whole treatment

    By analysis of fMRI data, the potential alterations of treatment effect in brain will be concluded.

    Time frame: week 12

  2. The alterations in brain of patients with CP/CPPS measured by fMRI in the following-up (24weeks after treatment)

    By analysis of fMRI data, the potential alterations of recurrence in brain will be concluded.

    Time frame: week 36

  3. the change from baseline in NIH-CPSI subscales

    The alterations of NIH-CPSI subscales will provide the certain efficacy in the symptoms of CP/CPPS.

    Time frame: week 0, week 12, week 36

  4. the change from baseline in the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS)

    These changes will reveal the efficacy of acupuncture in the aspect of lower urinary tract symptoms.To detailly describe the symptoms of lower urinary tract, except for the NIH-CPSI, we will independently apply the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS). The IPSS covers seven symptom questions and one health-related quality of life (QoL) question.

    Time frame: week 0, week 12, week 36

  5. the change from baseline in the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS)

    These changes will reveal the efficacy of acupuncture in the aspect of pain.For pain assessment, the Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) is a segmented numeric version of the visual analog scale (VAS) in which a respondent selects a whole number (0 -10 integers) that best reflects the intensity and severity of pain.

    Time frame: week 0, week 12, week 36

  6. the change from baseline in the Self-Esteem Scale (SES).

    These changes will reveal the efficacy of acupuncture in the aspect of internal self esteem. In 1965, the Self-Esteem Scale (SES) was initially designed to assess adolescents' overall feelings of self-worth and self-acceptance by Rosenberg. The SES contains five positive and five negative items, which is a widely used and well validated measurement with good psychometric properties.

    Time frame: week 0, week 12, week 36

  7. the change from baseline in the Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS)

    These changes will reveal the efficacy of acupuncture in the aspect of external social support.The Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS) is a questionnaire with 10 items which consists of objective support (3 items), subjective support (4 items) and the utilization of social support (3 items), which assist to evaluate the characteristics of social support and its association with mental health level, mental illness and various physical diseases. The higher score, the more social support.

    Time frame: week 0, week 12, week 36

  8. the change from baseline in the Quality of Life(QoL)

    These changes will reveal the efficacy of acupuncture in the aspect of subjective life quality feeling. In patients with prostatic diseases, this score is mainly used to evaluate the impact of urination symptoms on quality of life, ranging from very good to very painful, with 0-6 points, to understand the subjective feelings of patients on the level of lower urinary tract symptoms, mainly concerned with the degree of distress caused by lower urinary tract symptoms and whether they can tolerate them. This score is always used within IPSS.

    Time frame: week 0, week 12, week 36

  9. the change from baseline in NIH-CPSI

    These changes will reveal the efficacy of acupuncture in the aspect of symptoms of CP/CPPS.

    Time frame: week 0, week 12, week 36

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Study locations

1 site
  • Department of Acupuncture, LongHua Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine
    Shanghai, Shanghai 200032, China
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References and documents

Publications

  • Chen J, Zhang H, Niu D, Li H, Wei K, Zhang L, Yin S, Liu L, Zhang X, Zhang M, Liang C. The risk factors related to the severity of pain in patients with Chronic Prostatitis/Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome. BMC Urol. 2020 Oct 7;20(1):154. doi: 10.1186/s12894-020-00729-9. PubMed 33028277 ↗
  • Krieger JN, Nyberg L Jr, Nickel JC. NIH consensus definition and classification of prostatitis. JAMA. 1999 Jul 21;282(3):236-7. doi: 10.1001/jama.282.3.236. No abstract available. PubMed 10422990 ↗
  • Zhong YM, Luo XC, Chen Y, Lai DL, Lu WT, Shang YN, Zhang LL, Zhou HY. Acupuncture versus sham acupuncture for simple obesity: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Postgrad Med J. 2020 Apr;96(1134):221-227. doi: 10.1136/postgradmedj-2019-137221. Epub 2020 Feb 3. PubMed 32015189 ↗
  • Hopton A, MacPherson H. Acupuncture for chronic pain: is acupuncture more than an effective placebo? A systematic review of pooled data from meta-analyses. Pain Pract. 2010 Mar-Apr;10(2):94-102. doi: 10.1111/j.1533-2500.2009.00337.x. Epub 2010 Jan 8. PubMed 20070551 ↗
  • Passavanti MB, Pota V, Sansone P, Aurilio C, De Nardis L, Pace MC. Chronic Pelvic Pain: Assessment, Evaluation, and Objectivation. Pain Res Treat. 2017;2017:9472925. doi: 10.1155/2017/9472925. Epub 2017 Nov 20. PubMed 29359045 ↗
  • Bhatt RR, Gupta A, Mayer EA, Zeltzer LK. Chronic pain in children: structural and resting-state functional brain imaging within a developmental perspective. Pediatr Res. 2020 Dec;88(6):840-849. doi: 10.1038/s41390-019-0689-9. Epub 2019 Dec 2. PubMed 31791045 ↗
  • Ge S, Hu Q, Guo Y, Xu K, Xia G, Sun C. Potential Alterations of Functional Connectivity Analysis in the Patients with Chronic Prostatitis/Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome. Neural Plast. 2021 May 7;2021:6690414. doi: 10.1155/2021/6690414. eCollection 2021. PubMed 34035803 ↗
  • Park JJ. Developing and validating a sham acupuncture needle. Acupunct Med. 2009 Sep;27(3):93. doi: 10.1136/aim.2009.001495. No abstract available. PubMed 19734377 ↗
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Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reachedSimilar studies: half by the dot; the band is the middle halfHalf of similar studies reached it by the dot; the band is the middle half, from a quarter to three quarters

Started Jan 2022 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Sep 2023, 20 months after the start.

Of 21 interventional studies with no phase under Prostatitis, half reached primary completion within 20 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 11 and three quarters within 25. This study's planned 20 months is close to that.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Sep 19, 2021
First posted
Oct 12, 2021
StartActual
Jan 5, 2022
Primary completionEst.
Sep 12, 2023
CompletionEst.
Dec 31, 2023
Last update
Feb 28, 2023
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Feb 28, 2023, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT05075551
Collaborators
Huashan Hospital
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Oct 12, 2021
Start date
Jan 5, 2022
Primary completion
Sep 12, 2023 (estimated)
Completion
Dec 31, 2023 (estimated)
Last update
Feb 28, 2023

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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