Efficacy of Extremely Low Magnetic Field (ELF) in Fibromyalgic Patients

Fibromyalgia Clinical Trial

Official title:

Efficacy of Extremely Low Magnetic Field (ELF) in Fibromyalgic Patients: Effect on Symptoms Severity, Sleep and Quality of Life.

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT03503760
• Other study ID #: CESC prot. ELF-925
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• First received: March 20, 2018
• Last updated: April 11, 2018
• Start date: July 2016
• Est. completion date: July 2017

Study information

• Verified date: April 2018
• Source: Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Integrata Verona
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

This is a randomized double-blind crossover study. The investigators applied ELF with a device named "LIMFA Therapy®" to 48 fibromyalgic patients, assigned in two groups (true-sham and sham-true). Fibromyalgia severity was assessed with the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ), quality of sleep with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) questionnaire and global quality of life with Short Form-12 of Physical and Mental Health Summary (SF-12) questionnaire.

Description:

In the first part of the protocol the group true-sham received 6 twice a week sessions of true ELF therapy of 1 hour, following the antinflammatory, analgesic and biorhythm settings of the device "LIMFA Therapy®". The sham-true group patients received 6 twice a week sessions of sham therapy (no therapy).

During the second part of the protocol, the true-sham group received the sham therapy twice a week for 3 weeks and the sham-true group received the actual true therapy twice a week for 3 weeks.

For the assessment of pain, sleep quality and global quality of life, a set of questionnaires were administrated at specific stages of the protocol. Questionnaires were administrated every three weeks: before the first therapy, after the first course of therapy, after the washout period, after the second course of therapy, and 3 weeks after the end of treatment.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 48
• Est. completion date: July 2017
• Est. primary completion date: July 2017
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: All
• Age group: N/A and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• patients with an established fibromyalgia diagnosis of at least three months according to American College of Rheumatology 2010 modified criteria and no responsive to their current therapy.

• patients were not responsive to amitryptiline, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) or duloxetine and pregabalin (with a pain reduction below 50% compared to pre-therapy or intolerant to these drugs)

• patients with a pain level measured with Visual Analogue Scale for Pain (VAS) > 50/100.

• patients that had been taking other drugs or food supplements for the treatment of fibromyalgia for at least 6 months.

Exclusion Criteria:

• patients that completed either physiotherapy or acupuncture or behavioral treatment in the last 6 months

• patients that were affected by other painful syndromes or potentially painful syndromes other than fibromyalgia.

• pregnant women

• pace-maker carriers

• oncologic patients

• tuberculotic patients.

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Fibromyalgia
• Myofascial Pain Syndromes

Intervention

Device:
• LIMFA Therapy®
It applies a packages of magneto-electric field sequences having variable geometry, with frequencies and intensities that vary in a range of 0-80 Hertz and 0-100 microTesla, respectively.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
n/a

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Integrata Verona

References & Publications (8)

Bennett RM, Bushmakin AG, Cappelleri JC, Zlateva G, Sadosky AB. Minimal clinically important difference in the fibromyalgia impact questionnaire. J Rheumatol. 2009 Jun;36(6):1304-11. doi: 10.3899/jrheum.081090. Epub 2009 Apr 15. — View Citation

Borchers AT, Gershwin ME. Fibromyalgia: A Critical and Comprehensive Review. Clin Rev Allergy Immunol. 2015 Oct;49(2):100-51. doi: 10.1007/s12016-015-8509-4. Review. — View Citation

Curcio G, Tempesta D, Scarlata S, Marzano C, Moroni F, Rossini PM, Ferrara M, De Gennaro L. Validity of the Italian version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Neurol Sci. 2013 Apr;34(4):511-9. doi: 10.1007/s10072-012-1085-y. Epub 2012 Apr 13. — View Citation

Paolucci T, Piccinini G, Iosa M, Piermattei C, de Angelis S, Grasso MR, Zangrando F, Saraceni VM. Efficacy of extremely low-frequency magnetic field in fibromyalgia pain: A pilot study. J Rehabil Res Dev. 2016;53(6):1023-1034. doi: 10.1682/JRRD.2015.04.0061. — View Citation

Quittan M, Schuhfried O, Wiesinger GF, Fialka-Moser V. [Clinical effectiveness of magnetic field therapy--a review of the literature]. Acta Med Austriaca. 2000;27(3):61-8. Review. German. — View Citation

Sarzi-Puttini P, Atzeni F, Fiorini T, Panni B, Randisi G, Turiel M, Carrabba M. Validation of an Italian version of the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ-I). Clin Exp Rheumatol. 2003 Jul-Aug;21(4):459-64. — View Citation

Ware J Jr, Kosinski M, Keller SD. A 12-Item Short-Form Health Survey: construction of scales and preliminary tests of reliability and validity. Med Care. 1996 Mar;34(3):220-33. — View Citation

Wolfe F, Clauw DJ, Fitzcharles MA, Goldenberg DL, Katz RS, Mease P, Russell AS, Russell IJ, Winfield JB, Yunus MB. The American College of Rheumatology preliminary diagnostic criteria for fibromyalgia and measurement of symptom severity. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2010 May;62(5):600-10. doi: 10.1002/acr.20140. — View Citation

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	FIQ	Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire is a comprehensive questionnaire for evaluation of fibromyalgia severity. The scale range is from 0 to100 and higher values are considered worse outcomes. In the severity analysis a FIQ score from 0 to 38 represents a mild condition, from 39 to 58 represents a moderate condition, and from 59 to 100 a severe condition. A reduction of FIQ between 10 and 20% is related to a clinically significative intervention. (Bennett, R. et al.(2009))	12 weeks
Secondary	PSQI	Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index questionnaire measures the quality of sleep. The scale range is from 0 to 21. Higher scores are related to worse sleep condition and the best cut-off score is 5: starting from it, people are identified as affected by sleep disorders. A significant reduction of sleep impairment after treatment is one of the secondary outcome.	12 weeks
Secondary	SF-12	Short Form-12 of Physical and Mental Health Summary measures global quality of life.; The results consist of two index: Physical Component Summary(PCS) and Mental Component Summary(MCS). The lower outcomes represent a worse physical and mental condition. A significant improvement of quality of life after treatment is one of the secondary outcome.	12 weeks