Introduction: Migraine is a recurrent neurological disorder, the symptoms of which can be significantly relieved by acupuncture. However, the central mechanism via which acupuncture exerts its therapeutic effect in migraine is unclear. The aim of this study was to compare the differences in regional homogeneity (ReHo) between patients with migraine without aura (MwoA) and healthy controls (HCs) and to explore the immediate and cumulative therapeutic effect of acupuncture in patients with MwoA using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).Methods: The study subjects were 40 patients with MwoA and 16 matched HCs. The patients with MwoA received acupuncture on 2 days per week for 6 weeks for a total of 12 sessions followed by 24 weeks of follow-up. The primary clinical efficacy outcomes were the number of days with migraine and the average severity of headache. Secondary outcomes were the Migraine-Specific Quality of Life Questionnaire, Self-Rating Anxiety Scale, and Self-Rating Depression Scale scores. In the migraine group, resting-state blood-oxygen-level-dependent fMRI scans were obtained at baseline and after the first and 12th acupuncture sessions to measure the ReHo value. In the HCs, only a baseline resting-state blood-oxygen-level-dependent fMRI scan was obtained.Results: Compared with the control group, the migraine group had a significantly lower ReHo value in the cerebellum, which increased after the first acupuncture session. Long-term acupuncture significantly improved migraine symptoms and mood with a therapeutic effect that lasted for at least 6 months. After 12 acupuncture sessions, there were significant increase of cerebellum and angular gyrus in the migraine group.Conclusion: These findings suggest that migraine is related to cerebellar dysfunction. Acupuncture can relieve the symptoms of migraine, improve dysfunction of cerebellum, and activate brain regions involved in modulation of pain and emotion The cumulative therapeutic effect of acupuncture is more extensive and significant than its immediate effect.

The study evaluated the value of ultrasound elastography in differentiating the benign and malignant superficial lymph nodes. A total of 112 subjects, including 82 patients with enlarged lymph nodes and 30 healthy volunteers, were recruited. All the subjects were examined by B-mode ultrasonography, power Doppler ultrasonography and elastography. Most of the patients were histopathologically confirmed by needle aspiration cytology and some patients were diagnosed by clinical data combined with follow-up findings. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of B-mode ultrasonography were 59.8%, 76.5% and 67.1%, those of the blood flow classification by power Doppler ultrasonography 77.0%, 82.3% and 79.4% and those of elastographic classification 74.7%, 97.1% and 84.5%, respectively. The elasticity of the lymph nodes was quantitatively measured and defined as stiffness value. When the stiffness value of 2.395 was taken as the cutoff point, the sensitivity and specificity of elastography were 78.41% and 98.51%, and the Youden index reached the highest, with the value being 0.7692. The stiffness values of two indeterminate benign lymph nodes, the elastrographic findings of which were rated as patterns 2 and 3, were below the cutoff point. The elastographic findings of 10 malignant lymph nodes were also classified as pattern 2 or 3. Only one of them had the stiffness values below the cutoff point. It was concluded that ultrasound elastography is a novel, noninvasive and convenient tool for the differentiation of the nature of the superficial lymph nodes in clinical practice.

This study examined the wave intensity (WI) of the carotid artery in patients with hyperthyroid in order to assess the hemodynamic changes of hyperthyroid patients. A total of 86 hyperthyroid patients without cardiac morphological changes and arrhythmia, and 80 healthy control subjects were enrolled in the study. Right common carotid artery (RCCA) was selected for ultrasonic imaging to obtain WI indices, including amplitude of the peak during early systole (W1), amplitude of the peak during late systole (W2), area of the negative wave during mid-systole (NA), interval between R wave of electrocardiogram and W1 (R-1st), interval between W1 and W2 (1st-2nd). The levels of serum thyroid hormones, consisting of free triiodothyronine (FT3), free thyroxin (FT4) and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), were measured in hyperthyroid patients. Echocardiographic indices including left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and left ventricular fraction shortening (LVFS) were determined in each subject. The results showed that the W1, W2, NA, and (1st-2nd×HR) in hyperthyroid patients were significantly higher than those in healthy controls. There was no significant difference in LVEF and LVFS between the two groups. FT3 was correlated with W1, W2, NA, (1st-2nd×HR), pulse pressure (PP) and heart rate (HR) in hyperthyroid patients. Several abnormal waves on WI curves were present in 19 hyperthyroid patients during mid-systole. It was concluded that WI technique may prove a real-time, noninvasive, sensitive and convenient tool for assessing the cardiac function and hemodynamic alterations in hyperthyroid patients.