Fig. 3

Wrist-ankle acupuncture (WAA) needle and sham acupuncture needle. The WAA needle is a disposable sterile needle (0.25 mm in diameter and 25 mm in length, Suzhou Medical Appliance Factory, Jiangsu Province, China); the sham acupuncture also uses the same model needle (0.25 mm in diameter and 25 mm in length, Suzhou Medical Appliance Factory, Jiangsu Province, China), although the tip and most of the body was cut off and blunted. Only a 2–3 mm length of the needle body remained