Saturday, February 9, 2013

[Blood perfusion in different facial acupoint areas and its changes after acupuncture stimulation of Hegu (LI 4) displayed by laser Doppler imager in healthy volunteers].




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HubMed - Laser Acupuncture





[Blood perfusion in different facial acupoint areas and its changes after acupuncture stimulation of Hegu (LI 4) displayed by laser Doppler imager in healthy volunteers].



Zhen Ci Yan Jiu. 2012 Dec; 37(6): 482-7
Wang SY, Qu XX, Song XJ, Li SY, Ma HM, Zhang D

To observe the blood perfusion levels in different facial acupoint regions and changes after acupuncture stimulation of Hegu (LI 4).Thirty healthy volunteer subjects were equally divided into control group and acupuncture group. Blood perfusion levels of different facial acupoint areas were detected using a Laser Doppler Imager. Acupuncture stimulation was applied to bilateral Hegu (LI 4) by using two filiform needles which were manipulated for a while till "Deqi", followed by keeping them in position for 30 min. The needles were then manipulated once again every 10 min.The blood perfusion levels of facial acupoint regions were from 0.73 to 1.17 PU in healthy volunteers, with relatively higher levels being in Juliao (ST 3), Kouheliao (LI 19), Sibai (ST 2) and Chengqi (ST 1) regions and relatively lower levels in Xiaguan (ST 7), Qianzheng (Ex-HN) and Sizhukong (TE 23) regions, but without significant difference between the isonym acupoint areas of the bilateral face in the control group. Following acupuncture stimulation of bilateral Hegu (LI 4), the blood perfusion volumes were remarkably increased in the acupoint regions on bilateral sides of the face (P < 0.05, P < 0.01).Acupuncture of Hegu (LI 4) can effectively increase blood perfusion volume of the acupoint areas of the bilateral face in healthy volunteers.








HubMed - Acupuncture





A dual-center randomized controlled double blind trial assessing the effect of acupuncture in reducing musculoskeletal symptoms in breast cancer patients taking aromatase inhibitors.



Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2013 Feb 8;
Bao T, Cai L, Giles JT, Gould J, Tarpinian K, Betts K, Medeiros M, Jeter S, Tait N, Chumsri S, Armstrong DK, Tan M, Folkerd E, Dowsett M, Singh H, Tkaczuk K, Stearns V

Up to 50 % of women receiving aromatase inhibitor (AI) complain of AI-associated musculoskeletal symptoms (AIMSS) and 15 % discontinue treatment. We conducted a randomized, sham-controlled trial to evaluate whether acupuncture improves AIMSS and to explore potential mechanisms. Postmenopausal women with early stage breast cancer, experiencing AIMSS were randomized to eight weekly real or sham acupuncture sessions. We evaluated changes in the Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index (HAQ-DI) and pain visual analog scale (VAS) following the intervention compared to baseline. Serum estradiol, β-endorphin, and proinflammatory cytokine concentrations were measured pre and post-intervention. We enrolled 51 women of whom 47 were evaluable, including 23 randomized to real and 24 to sham acupuncture. Baseline characteristics were balanced between groups with the exception of a higher HAQ-DI score in the real acupuncture group (p = 0.047). We did not observe a statistically significant difference in reduction of HAQ-DI (p = 0.30) or VAS (p = 0.31) between the two groups. Following eight weekly treatments, we observed a statistically significant reduction of IL-17 (p ≤ 0.009) in both groups. No significant modulation was seen in estradiol, β-endorphin, or other proinflammatory cytokine concentrations in either group. We did not observe a significant difference in AIMSS changes between real and sham acupuncture. As sham acupuncture used in this study may not be equivalent to placebo, further studies with a non-acupuncture arm may be required to establish whether acupuncture is beneficial for the treatment of AIMSS.







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