Objective To observe the influence of different skin reactions of acupoint-application in summer on outcomes of prevention and treatment of bronchial asthma.Methods All of the bronchial asthma patients were treated with acupoint-application therapy in the dog-days of summer

once every ten days

3times altogether.After the treatment

according to scores of the skin reactions including flush

itching

pain

vesicles

etc.induced by acupoint-application of prepared Chinese medical herb paste

164cases were divided into four groups:no reaction(n=43)

mild reaction(n=42)

moderate reaction(n=39)and severe reaction(n=40).One-year's follow-up was conducted after the treatment for assessing the asthma patients' cough-asthma score

wheezing rale score

and for recording the attack times.Results After the treatment

the cough-asthma scores

wheezing rale scores

and asthmatic attack times were obviously decreased in all the 4groups compared to pre-treatment(P<0.05

P<0.01).Comparison among the 4groups showed that the levels of the 3indexes were significantly higher in the no reaction group and mild reaction group than in the moderate and severe reaction groups after the treatment(P<0.05

P<0.01)

suggesting a better therapeutic effect in patients undergoing moderate and severe skin reactions.There were no significant differences between the no reaction and mild reaction groups

and between the moderate reaction and severe reaction groups in the levels of the 3indexes(P>0.05).The total effective rates of the no reaction

mild reaction

moderate reaction and severe reaction groups were 58.14%

88.10%

94.87%and 97.50%

respectively.The mild

moderate and severe reaction groups were better than the no reaction group in the therapeutic effect(P<0.01).The mild reaction group was poorer than the moderate and severe reaction groups in clinical efficacy(P<0.05).There was no marked difference between the moderate and severe reaction groups in clinical outcomes(P>0.05).Conclusion Acupoint-application in the dog-days can effectively improve the asthma patients' symptoms

and the therapeutic effect of patients experiencing moderate and severe skin reactions was better.