Objectives The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the effects of acupuncture treatment and heart rate variability (HRV) in pre-menopausal obese women. Methods Thirty-seven obese women who met the inclusion criteria were recruited. To estimate the effects of acupuncture, obesity indices, such as body weight (BW), waist circumference (WC), hip circumference (HC), and the waist-hip ratio (WHR), were measured before and after the treatment. The HRV test was conducted before treatment and analyzed using the frequency domain method. Results The lnLF/HF ratio (natural logarithm of low frequency power/high frequency power ratio of the HRV value) before treatments was negatively correlated with differences in WC, HC, and WHR during treatment. The correlation coefficients between the lnLF/HF ratio and the differences in WC, HC, and WHR were r=−0.459 (p＜0.01), r=−0.327 (p＜0.05), and r=−0.339 (p＜0.05) respectively. Conclusions As the baseline ratio of sympathetic activity to parasympathetic activity decreases, WC, HC, and WHR reduction significantly increased during treatment. Further study is needed to uncover the relationship between obesity-related variables and the autonomic nervous system to predict the effect of acupuncture. (J Korean Med Rehabil 2016;26(4):85-96)

Objectives To investigate correlation between slip percentage (SP) of spondylolisthesis and cross-sectional area (CSA) of lumbar paraspinal muscles; psoas major (PM), multifidus (MU) and erector spinae (ES). Methods A retrospective study was carried out in 120 spondylolisthesis patients who had visited the Spine center of Kyung Hee University Hospital at Gangdong and had taken lumbar MRI. CSA of lumbar paraspinal muscles was measured from axial T2-weighted MRI and divided by CSA of vertebral body to avoid weight's influence. SP was also measured from sagittal MRI. Results SP increase has significant correlation with decreased CSA-MU (r=0.37, p ＜0.01) and increased CSA-ES (r=0.19, p＜0.05). There was no significant correlation between SP and CSA-PM. Conclusions MU atrophy and ES hypertrophy have significant correlation with SP of spondylolisthesis. CSA of lumbar paraspinal muscles can be a risk factor of progression of spondylolisthesis and compensation for the instability. (J Korean Med Rehab 2016;26(1):95-102)