J Altern Complement Med. 2009 Oct;15(10):1075-81.
Changes in Regional Cerebral Blood Flow and Glucose Metabolism Following Electroacupuncture at LI 4 and LI 11 in Normal Volunteers.
An YS, Moon SK, Min IK, Kim DY.
1 Department of Nuclear Medicine, School of Medicine, Ajou University , Suwon, Korea.
Abstract Objectives: Although numerous trials have demonstrated the clinical effects of acupuncture, the mechanism of its therapeutic effect still remains uncertain. Recent neuroimaging studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging, single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), and positron emission tomography (PET) have revealed that acupuncture therapy may alter brain activity. This study was performed to evaluate changes in regional cerebral blood flow and glucose metabolism following electroacupuncture (EA) in normal volunteers. Design and setting: Twenty (20) normal volunteers were enrolled for brain SPECT and 13 normal volunteers were enrolled for (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose PET. A few days after the baseline measurements, EA was performed at two acupoints (LI 4 and LI 11) for 15 minutes and a second brain image was acquired for each subject. We used statistical parametric mapping 2 to analyze the changes in brain perfusion and glucose metabolism. Results: Significant increases in perfusion were observed in the left middle frontal gyrus, the superior parietal gyrus, the right superior frontal gyrus, and the middle parietal gyrus. Following EA, glucose metabolism significantly increased in the left superior medial frontal gyrus, the middle frontal gyrus, and the right superior medial frontal gyrus (paired t-test, uncorrected p < 0.005). Conclusions: There were specific increases in both regional cerebral blood flow and glucose metabolism following EA in both frontal regions. This common brain response in localized regions was induced from stimulation of specific acupoints (LI 4 and LI 11).
Zhongguo Zhen Jiu. 2009 Jul;29(7):561-4.
[Study of the relationship between the acupoints of Zhongzhu (TE 3), Yanglingquan (GB 34) and their corresponding cortical areas with the functional MRI]
[Article in Chinese]
Tian LF, Zhou C, Chen M, Zou MZ, Yang ZH.
Department of Acupuncture and Massage, Beijing Hospital of The Ministry of Health, Beijing 100730, China. lftian88@yahoo.cn
OBJECTIVE: Using the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to observe the distributed characteristic of excited cerebral cortical areas that induced by acupuncture-stimulating the Zhongzhu (TE 3) of the meridian of Hand-Shaoyang and Yanglingquan (GB 34) of the meridian of Foot-Shaoyang, and investigate the central neural mechanism on the effect of meridians and acupoints. METHODS: Forty-two right handed healthy volunteers were randomly divided into Zhongzhu (TE 3) group and Yanglingquan (GB 34) group. The functional cortical changes during acupuncture-stimulating the Zhongzhu (TE 3) and Yanglingquan (GB 34) were successively scanned with fMRI, and the effected areas were determined through analysing the obtained data with SPM2 software. RESULTS: The main excited areas were bilateral frontal lobes, temporal lobes, cerebellum and occipital lobes successively in Zhongzhu (TE 3) group, and bilateral occipital lobes, cerebellum, frontal lobes and temporal lobes in Yanglingquan (GB 34) group in contrast. CONCLUSION: Acupuncture-stimulating both Zhongzhu (TE 3) and Yanglingquan (GB 34) can excite bilateral acoustic, visual and somatomotor cortices, which might be the central neural basis for clinical treatment on related diseases.