Rheumatology international
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Effects of low power laser and low dose amitriptyline therapy on clinical symptoms and quality of life in fibromyalgia: a single-blind, placebo-controlled trial.
The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of low power laser (LPL) and low-dose amitriptyline therapy and to investigate effects of these therapy modalities on clinical symptoms and quality of life (QOL) in patients with fibromyalgia (FM). Seventy-five patients with FM were randomly allocated to active gallium-arsenide (Ga-As) laser (25 patients), placebo laser (25 patients), and amitriptyline therapy (25 patients). All groups were evaluated for the improvement in pain, number of tender points, skin fold tenderness, morning stiffness, sleep disturbance, muscular spasm, and fatigue. ⋯ Additionally, a significant difference was observed in depression score (P = 0.000) in the amitriptyline group in comparison to the laser group after therapy. Our study suggests that both amitriptyline and laser therapies are effective on clinical symptoms and QOL in fibromyalgia and that Ga-As laser therapy is a safe and effective treatment in cases with FM. Additionally, the present study suggests that the Ga-As laser therapy can be used as a monotherapy or as a supplementary treatment to other therapeutic procedures in FM.
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Technetium-99m ethyl cysteinate dimer (Tc-99m ECD) brain single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) was used to detect abnormal regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in 78 SLE patients with neuropsychiatric manifestations. These patients were separated into two subgroups: group 1 including 48 cases with definite neuropsychiatric symptoms/signs and group 2 with 30 cases having no neuropsychiatric symptoms/signs. ⋯ In both groups, parietal lobe and cerebellum are the most and least common areas with hypoperfusion lesions, respectively. This study suggests that Tc-99m ECD brain SPECT may provide objective information for detection of hypoperfusion brain lesions in SLE patients.