Recruiting

Electro-Acupuncture

Sponsor:

UCLA

Code:

NCT00932139

Conditions

Hypertension

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18 - 70+

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Interventions

Electro-acupuncture control

Electro-acupuncture test

Study Details

Brief summary:

Based on previous published research in animals and human, the investigators hypothesize that electroacupuncture (EA) will have a positive effect on hypertension.

Conditions

Hypertension

Study ID

NCT00932139

Start date

Feb, 2003

Status verified date

Apr, 2025

Completion date

Dec, 2027

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Sep, 2027

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18 - 70+

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Patients with mild coronary disease, and no significant ECG change reflecting ischemia at rest.
  • Patients with high blood pressure with or without antihypertensive medication.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Pregnant or nursing women
  • Individuals with severe coronary disease (continuous angina)
  • Conduction abnormalities on ECG consistent with left bundle branch block
  • Cardiac arrhythmias associated with low blood pressure (90 mmHg)
  • Peripheral vascular disease
  • Orthopedic disease
  • Diabetic or psychological illness that could interfere with safe performance of exercise of psychophysiological stress testing
  • Those with known sensitivity to topical preparations or strong reactions to medical dressings and skin tapes

Study Design

Enrollment

160 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Randomized

Intervention Model

Parallel Assignment

Primary purpose

Treatment

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: Electro-acupuncture control

Blood pressure will be recorded before and after each EA treatment for 8 weeks. The course is a once a week 8-week treatment.

Intervention is the Electro-acupuncture control treatment.

experimental: Electro-acupuncture test

Blood pressure will be recorded before and after each EA treatment for 8 weeks. The course is a once a week 8-week treatment.

Intervention is the active Electro-acupuncture treatment.

Interventions

Electro-acupuncture control

First visit, blood pressure monitoring for 60 minutes at rest, then monitoring for subsequent 24 hours to measure BP and heart rate. At next 6-8 visits, Electro-acupuncture (EA) treatment for 30 minutes will be administered. BP and heart rate measurements will be taken 30 minutes before and after EA.

Electro-acupuncture test

First visit, blood pressure monitoring for 60 minutes at rest, then monitoring for subsequent 24 hours to measure BP and heart rate. At next 6-8 visits, Electro-acupuncture (EA) treatment for 30 minutes will be administered. BP and heart rate measurements will be taken 30 minutes before and after EA. At end of 8-week treatment, 24 hours blood pressure and heart rate will be measured.

Primary outcome measure

  • blood pressure [ Time Frame: 8 weeks ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Stephanie Tjen-A-Looi, PhD

9494005909stjenalo@uci.edu

Shaista Malik, MD, PhD, MPH

smalik@uci.edu

Locations

Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute

Recruiting

Irvine, California, United States, 92617

Contacts

Mitchell Beasley, MD, PhD, MPH

949-824-7000beasleym@uci.edu

Shaista Malik, PhD

949-824-7000smalik@hs.uci.edu

Principal Investigator:

Shaista Malik, MD, PhD, MPH

UCIMedical Center

Recruiting

Orange, California, United States, 92868

Contacts

Shaista Malik, MD, PhD, MPH

smalik@uci.edu

More Information

Sponsor

University of California, Irvine

Last update posted

Apr 15, 2025

Last verified

Apr, 2025

Keywords

  • Hypertension
  • blood pressure
  • mild to moderate hypertension

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-10. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by University of California, Irvine on 2025-04-15.