Acupuncture Sites Research Articles

Effects of Acupuncture on Blood Pressure and Plasma Renin Activity in Two-Kidney One Clip Goldblatt Hypertensive Rats

Shih-Hsüan [Sipseon (EX-UE-11)] are Curious loci lying outside of the meridians on the tips of each finger. These loci have long been the acupuncture sites for the treatment of cardiovascular disease in oriental medicine. Alterations in the renin-angiotensin system have been considered as the pathophysiological basis of the origin and/or maintenance of hypertension. Activation of the plasma or tissue renin-angiotensin system may be one of the cause of hypertension. The aim of the present study was to elucidate the effects of acupuncture on blood pressure and plasma renin activity. Acupuncture was applied on the EX-UE-11 of two-kidney one clip Goldblatt hypertensive rats. Both the systolic blood pressure and the plasma renin activity decreased significantly after treatment with acupuncture on the EX-UE-11. In the sham-operated and control rats, the procedure influenced the parameters without significant changes. The results suggest that the suppressive hemodynamic effect of acupuncture on the EX-UE-11 may be related to changes in plasma renin activity.

Effectiveness of Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) for Analgesia during Biliary Lithotripsy

The effectiveness of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) in controlling pain during biliary extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy (BESWL) was assessed in 100 patients with symptomatic gallbladder calculi. Patients were divided into four groups: TENS electrodes were placed on the back at cutaneous anesthesia sites and on the right leg and the gallbladder acupuncture site in groups A and B. Electrodes were "turned on" only in group A. In groups C and D, electrodes were placed only on the back at cutaneous dermatomes. Electrodes were "turned on" in group C only. The TENS unit was stimulated at the pulse rate of 60 to 100 microseconds and frequency of 80 to 125 Hz. Lithotripsy was performed with the Lithostar Plus overhead module. The differences in the amount of analgesic used and the pain experiences by the patients in all groups were not statistically significant. The proportion of patients requiring intravenous analgesia in each group was also not significantly different (72%, 80%, 68%, 76% in groups A to D, respectively). Thus, TENS did not help in reducing the amount of intravenous analgesia required or the average pain perceived by the patient during lithotripsy treatment.

Sympathetic effects of manual and electrical acupuncture of the Tsusanli knee point: Comparison with the Hoku hand point sympathetic effects

Sympathetic effects of manual and electrical acupuncture of the Tsusanli knee point were evaluated by thermography in 19 normal subjects under the same procedure used in a previous study using the Hoku hand point. A generalized long-lasting warming (sympathetic inhibition) effect was observed under manual and electrical acupuncture of the Tsusanli point. In addition, a segmentally related short-lasting cooling (sympathetic activation) effect occurred with Tsusanli electrical acupuncture only. The warming effect is consistent with the results of the Hoku study and appears to be a central sympathetic inhibition evoked by acupuncture. The cooling effect was segmentally related to the acupuncture site in both studies. This cooling effect most likely reflects a segmental activation of vasomotor spinal reflexes and not a general emotional arousal. These sympathetic mechanisms may be functionally correlated with central and peripheral mechanisms of acupuncture analgesia.

Altered Pain and Visual Sensitivity in Humans: The Effects of Acute and Chronic Stressa

In the runner study, as measured by tourniquet ischemic pain, exercise stress produced hypoalgesia 20 minutes post-run, followed by hyperalgesia and euphoria at 30 minutes. The hypoalgesia and euphoria were reversed by naloxone. Exercise stress also produced a decrease in P(A), suggesting hypoalgesia to the thermal cutaneous stimulation. However, this analgesia was not naloxone reversible. Nor did exercise stress produce analgesia to cold-pressor pain. In the acupuncture study, noxious electrical stimulation of classical acupuncture sites failed to produce analgesia either during or after stimulation. However, expectation did produce a change in the pain report criterion, but only in the acupunctured arm. Noxious electrical stimulation (TENS) of the median nerve produced no analgesia outside of the related segmental area, that is, acute electrical pain did not produce generalized hypoalgesia. Thus, the effects of the stress produced by noxious electrical stimulation differ from that produced by exercise. In contrast to the results of the acute pain studies, chronic clinical pain, which combines mental stress and pain stress, produced strong hypoalgesia and anesthesia. Again, in contrast to the acute experimental pain studies, the emotional stress of mental illness produces hypoalgesia, but not anesthesia. Finally, the somatosensory system is not the only the sensory system affected by stress. Cold-pressor pain decreases visual sensitivity both during and for a few minutes following stimulation, and does not interfere with short-term (supra-digit span) memory.

Cessation of Smoking-Reply

In Reply.— I sympathize with the difficulty of a physician in private practice to conduct a controlled, doubleblind study. It surely does not follow, however, that a private physician be accorded credence merely for claiming success with a new treatment tried on however many patients. And although it is not imperative that a pharmacologic rationale be found for a therapeutic method, persistence in using acupuncture sites—in the face of acupuncture's ineffectiveness in the treatment of cigarette smoking 1 — is unlikely to enhance the confidence of either the public or the medical profession in nicotine neutralization.

Interaction in the thalamus of afferent impulses from acupuncture point and site of pain. (Chinese)

Interaction in the thalamus of afferent impulses from acupuncture point and site of pain. (Chinese)

Comparative effects of acupuncture and transcutaneous stimulation on the perception of painful dental stimuli

The effects of acupunctural stimulation on the perception of induced dental pain were compared with those of placebo acupuncture and transcutaneous electrical stimulation (TES) at an acupuncture site. Each of 4 groups of 15 subjects received one of the following treatments: acupuncture, placebo acupuncture, TES, or control conditions. Every subject was tested twice, once in a baseline session and on another day in a test session. Four levels of painful dental stimuli were delivered repeatedly and in random order to each subject in each session, who rated the perceived intensity of each stimulus on a pain category scale. All three treatment groups showed a significant reduction in magnitude of stimulus ratings after treatment. A Sensory Decision Theory analysis of the data was employed to assess the sensory sensitivity of each subject to each of 4 levels of dental stimulation and the willingness of the subject to label the strongest stimulus as painful. Acupuncture and TES groups showed a small but significant sensory analgesic response to treatment and a significant reduction in willingness to identify the strongest stimulus as painful when contrasted to controls, but placebo acupuncture subjects failed to show significant change on either of the response measures. The effects of acupuncture were most pronounced at the lowest level of stimulation, while TES affected the perception of all levels of dental stimuli. The observed effects appeared to be small, reliable, and dependent on the stimulation of a particular anatomical locus.

Acupuncture and endodontics—a review and preliminary study

The history, theory, and medical and dental uses of acupuncture are reviewed. A clinical study is presented in which acupuncture was used for analgesia in ten endodontically involved teeth with vital pulps in eight patients. Combinations of dental and nondental acupuncture sites were used. Needle insertion was accomplished by electrical and manual methods. The results showed four effects of acupuncture: by itself, it was sufficiently effective to allow for painfree pulpal extirpation and instrumentation in one case; it had to be supplemented by a small amount of intrapulpal local anesthetic in six cases; it had to be augmented by a small dose of a local anesthetic for an inferior alveolar block in one case; and it resulted in no analgesia in two cases.

The Effects of Acupuncture on White Cell Counts

The anticipation of acupuncture, simple insertion of needles or the electrical stimulation of needles at both classical acupuncture points and "false" points, all produce an increase in white blood cell count. Electrostimulation produced the greatest, expectation of needle insertion the least, increase in white cell count. Though needles remain to place, the white cell count returns to basal level within one hour. Preliminary data on peripheral skin temperature as affected by stimulation of acupuncture points and non-points, suggests a higher temperature on the side of stimulation. For acupuncture site stimulation, the temperature differential appears to be more persistent than is true when non-sites are stimulated. Subjects reported needle insertion at acupuncture points as less painful than at non-points. Feelings of numbness were produced by stimulation of both classical and false acupuncture points.

ACUPUNCTURE ANÆSTHESIA

A possible mechanism to explain acupuncture anæsthesia is presented which takes into consideration the fact that acupuncture needles have to be vibrated or rotated and which is not invalidated by the lack of correlation between the traditional acupuncture sites and the anatomy of the peripheral nervous system. It is suggested that rhythmic stimulation causes areas of the cerebral cortex to become " locked on" to the stimulating rhythm and thus " busy " and unable to react to stimuli in the normal way.

Histamine explanation of acupuncture.

<h3>To the Editor.—</h3> I have been surprised by the almost total lack of scientific explanation of the beneficial action of acupuncture. It is understandable that one theory will not fully explain its action when numerous and unrelated illnesses are treated. The patient is often quoted as stating that the site of the needle puncture became warm and red. The area raised resembled a wheal, such as occurs following the local injection or production of histamine. Histamine is the substance produced at the site of the tissue injury. The needling at the acupuncture site carries sufficient trauma to produce this agent. Histamine is a powerful agent with many physiological actions, such as being an antagonist to epinephrine in dilating the arterioles and capillaries. Vasoconstriction is often associated with pain. Histamine is found in all living tissue and important to body physiology. Undoubtedly, others have thought that histamine, produced through acupuncture, is