Electroacupuncture may aid in personalized ribavirin dosing for long COVID

Background and objectives

Various devices are used to study the unique electrical properties of acupuncture points (APs), with Voll's electropuncture diagnostics (EAV) occupying a prominent role. The technical design of EAV allows for the testing of drugs to determine their individual selection and dosages. However, the physiological basis of this phenomenon remains unclear. This study investigated the feasibility of evaluating the electrodermal activity of APs to determine the daily dose of ribavirin using electroacupuncture according to the Voll diagnostic system in patients with long COVID.

Methods

This blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial included 101 patients (aged 16 to 50) who met the definition of long COVID and were examined using an EAV testing system that measures the electrodermal activity of APs. Ribavirin was tested at the APs with established decreased electrical impedance readings to determine the daily doses. Fifty-two participants were randomized to the experimental group, and forty-nine to the placebo group. These patients were considered for data analysis.

Results

The results of this study demonstrated the feasibility of using EAV to identify APs with decreased levels of electrodermal activity, followed by medicament testing (MT) of different ribavirin doses to restore the electrodermal activity at these points.

Conclusions

The results of this study demonstrate the feasibility of using the EAV to identify meridians with decreased EI at APs, followed by MT with ribavirin to restore the decreased electrodermal activity at the studied APs and to measure the daily dose of the drug. The study showed that the tested doses of ribavirin in patients with long COVID correlate with the indicators of electrodermal activity at certain APs of some meridians. The higher the tested dose of the drug, the lower the readings recorded during MT using the EAV diagnostic system. However, further clinical and instrumental studies are needed to assess the clinical application of MT in the evaluation of long COVID.