Yang JM, Wang Y, Zhang YQ, Zhang HL, Bo ZY. Bo’s abdominal acupuncture treatment for adult-onset Still's disease: A case report. World J Clin Cases 2025; 13(8): 101350 [DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v13.i8.101350]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Hong-Lin Zhang, MD, Professor, College of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, No. 11 North San Huan East Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100029, China. myopia2008@sina.com
Research Domain of This Article
Integrative & Complementary Medicine
Article-Type of This Article
Case Report
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Clin Cases. Mar 16, 2025; 13(8): 101350 Published online Mar 16, 2025. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v13.i8.101350
Bo’s abdominal acupuncture treatment for adult-onset Still's disease: A case report
Jia-Min Yang, Yu Wang, Yu-Qing Zhang, Hong-Lin Zhang, Zhi-Yun Bo
Jia-Min Yang, College for People's Livelihood and Well-being, Beijing Vocational College of Labor and Social Security, Beijing 100029, China
Yu Wang, Hong-Lin Zhang, College of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100029, China
Yu-Qing Zhang, Guang'Anmen Hospital, China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100053, China
Zhi-Yun Bo, Beijing Zhiyuntang Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinic, Beijing Bo’s Abdominal Acupuncture Research Institute, Beijing 100122, China
Co-corresponding authors: Hong-Lin Zhang and Zhi-Yun Bo.
Author contributions: Yang JM contributed to the drafting and reporting of the case; Wang Y and Zhang YQ contributed to revision of the manuscript; Zhang HL and Bo ZY contributed to the patient’s abdominal acupuncture treatment, the concept and revision of the manuscript; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript; Zhang HL and Bo ZY are the co-corresponding authors of this manuscript.
Supported by Beijing Municipal Commission of Education, No. SM202214075001.
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this case report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Hong-Lin Zhang, MD, Professor, College of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, No. 11 North San Huan East Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100029, China. myopia2008@sina.com
Received: September 11, 2024 Revised: October 30, 2024 Accepted: November 26, 2024 Published online: March 16, 2025 Processing time: 83 Days and 19.7 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Adult-onset Still's disease (AOSD) is a rare autoinflammatory disease characterized by nonspecific symptoms such as fever, rash, sore throat and arthralgia. This paper reports a clinical case of AOSD successfully treated with Bo’s abdominal acupuncture (BAA).
CASE SUMMARY
We report a 20-year-old man who suffered from cold exposure, presenting with high fever, rash, sore throat, arthralgia, and elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate, leukocytosis with neutrophilic predominance, elevated ferritin, elevated C-reactive protein, and negative rheumatoid factors. He was diagnosed with AOSD based on the Yamaguchi criteria. After treatment with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) decoction and prednisone acetate tablets, there was some alleviation of sore throat, joint and muscle pain, and fever, but he still had persistent low-grade fever, rash, sore throat and arthralgia. He went to the TCM acupuncture outpatient department to receive BAA. Abdominal acupoints Zhongwan (CV12), Xiawan (CV10), 0.5 cm below Xiawan (CV10), Qihai (CV6), Guanyuan (CV4), bilateral Qixue (KI13), bilateral Huaroumen (ST24), bilateral Shangfengshidian (AB1) and bilateral Daheng (SP15) were selected. After 3 months treatment, all symptoms disappeared, and the laboratory examination returned to normal levels. He did not take glucocorticoids or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs afterwards, and no relapse was observed during the 3-year follow-up period.
CONCLUSION
BAA can be used as a complementary medical approach for treatment of AOSD.
Core Tip: We report a 20-year-old man who suffered from cold exposure, presenting with high fever, rash, sore throat, arthralgia, and was diagnosed with adult-onset Still's disease based on the Yamaguchi criteria. After treatment with traditional Chinese medicine decoction and prednisone acetate tablets, there was some alleviation of symptoms. He underwent Bo’s abdominal acupuncture, while prednisone acetate tablets were reduced by 0.5 tablets per week. After 3 months treatment, all symptoms disappeared, and laboratory examination returned to normal. He did not take prednisone acetate tablets afterwards, and no relapse was observed during the 3-year follow-up.
