Author: Zheng Y1, Zhang J1, Wang Y1, Wang Y1, Lan Y1, Qu S1, Tang C2, Huang Y1
Affiliation: <sup>1</sup>School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province 510515, China.
<sup>2</sup>Clinical School of Acupuncture and Rehabilitation, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province 510405, China.
Conference/Journal: Evid Based Complement Alternat Med.
Date published: 2016
Other:
Volume ID: 2016 , Pages: 6908710 , Special Notes: doi: 10.1155/2016/6908710. Epub 2016 Sep 4. , Word Count: 190
The therapeutic effects of acupuncture in decreasing blood pressure are ambiguous and underlying acupuncture in hypertension treatment has not been investigated. Our objective was to observe the change of quality of life and compare the differences in brain functional connectivity by investigating instantaneous and short-term acupuncture treatment in essential hypertension patients. A total of 30 patients were randomly divided into the LR3 group and sham acupoint group. Subjects received resting-state fMRI among preacupuncture, postinstantaneous, and short-term acupuncture treatment in two groups. Hypothalamus was selected as the seed point to analyze the changes in connectivity. We found three kinds of results: (1) There was statistical difference in systolic blood pressure in LR3 group after the short-term treatment and before acupuncture. (2) Compared with sham acupoint, acupuncture at LR3 instantaneous effects in the functional connectivity with seed points was more concentrated in the frontal lobe. (3) Compared with instantaneous effects, acupuncture LR3 short-term effects in the functional connectivity with seed points had more regions in frontal lobe, cerebellum, and insula. These brain areas constituted a neural network structure with specific functions that could explain the mechanism of therapy in hypertension patients by LR3 acupoint.
PMID: 27688791 DOI: 10.1155/2016/6908710