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This study was conducted to verify the effect of acupuncture on cerebral haemodynamics to provide evidence for the use of acupuncture treatment as a complementary therapy for the high-risk stroke population. The effect of ST36 acupuncture treatment on the hyperventilation-induced CO2 reactivity of the basilar and middle cerebral arteries was studied in 10 healthy male volunteers (mean age, 25.2 ± 1.5 years) using a transcranial Doppler sonography with an interval of 1 week between measurements, and a portable ECG monitoring system was used to obtain ECG data simultaneously. The CO2 reactivity of the basilar and middle cerebral arteries increased significantly after ST36 acupuncture treatment, whereas the mean arterial blood pressure and pulse rate did not change significantly. The high-frequency power significantly increased after ST36 acupuncture treatment, and the percentage increase of high-frequency power correlated significantly with the percentage increase in the CO2 reactivity of the contralateral middle cerebral artery. These data suggest that ST36 acupuncture treatment increases CO2 reactivity, indicating improvement of vasodilatory potential of the cerebral vasculature to compensate for fluctuations caused by changes in external conditions. The increase in parasympathetic tone by ST36 acupuncture treatment is responsible for this therapeutic effect.

INTRODUCTION The aim of this study was to establish if the auricular acupuncture treatment can play a complementary role in enhancing the smoking cessation rate of the smokers receiving conventional therapy, such as NRT and behavioral counseling. METHODS This was a retrospective cohort study. Republic of Korea Air Force soldiers who visited the clinic with the intention to quit smoking from September 2016 to March 2017 were reviewed. The smoking cessation program consisted of a 6-weeks treatment period with follow-up at 3 and 6 months from the baseline. Smokers who chose to receive nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) were compared with those who chose to receive auricular acupuncture combined with NRT. Both groups received behavioral counseling. RESULTS A total of 148 subjects were reviewed in the study. Of the 86 smokers who received combination therapy, 41 achieved continuous abstinence (47.7%), while 19 out of the 62 smokers stayed abstinent from the NRT group (30.6%). There was a significant difference between the two groups (p=0.037). Minnesota Nicotine Withdrawal Scale scores significantly decreased after the treatment in both groups, but there was no significant difference between the two groups (p=0.681). No serious adverse events were reported from both groups. CONCLUSIONS The results of this study indicate that conventional treatments, such as NRT and behavioral counseling, when combined with auricular acupuncture could be a safer and more effective smoking cessation treatment than conventional treatments alone.

Objectives. This study was conducted to verify the necessity of corresponding prescription to the diagnosed pattern in acute cerebral infarction patients. Methods. We studied cerebral infarction patients hospitalized within 30 days after the ictus. Forty-four clinical indicators, Motricity Index (MI) score, Scandinavian Stroke Scale (SSS) score, and herbal prescriptions were checked twice, two weeks apart. The probability of each pattern was calculated based on the clinical indicators. Changes in MI score, SSS score, and the probability of fire-heat pattern were compared between the pattern-prescription correspondence group and the noncorrespondence group. Results. Increments of MI score and SSS score in the correspondence group were significantly greater than those of the noncorrespondence group (p = 0.003, p = 0.001) while the baseline score of the two groups showed no significant difference. Probability of fire-heat pattern decreased significantly in the correspondence group (p = 0.013) while the noncorrespondence group showed no significant difference after the treatment. Conclusion. Acute cerebral infarction patients who are diagnosed as fire-heat pattern showed better improvement in dysfunctions caused by the disease when they took the pattern corresponding prescriptions. This study provides evidence for the necessity and usefulness of pattern identification in Traditional Korean Medicine.