No abstract

Acupuncture and sham acupuncture have relatively different clinical efficacy and brain responses. Acupuncture treatment more significantly improves the symptoms and quality of life of FD patients. The more remarkable modulation on the homeostatic afferent network, including the insula, ACC, and hypothalamus, might be the specific mechanism of acupuncture.

BackgroundIn the field of acupuncture research, the topic of acupoint specificity has received increasing attention, but no unified conclusion has been reached on whether or not acupoint specificity exists. Furthermore, the majority of previous acupuncture neuroimaging studies have been performed using healthy subjects. In this study, patients with migraine were used to investigate acupoint specificity.MethodsThirty patients with migraine were enrolled and randomized into three groups: Traditional Acupuncture Group (TAG), Control Acupuncture Group (CAG), and Migraine Group (MG). The TAG was treated by acupuncture stimulation at Waiguan (TE5), Yang Lingquan (GB34), and Fengchi (GB20). The CAG was treated at Touwei (ST8), Pianli (LI6), and Zusanli (ST36). The MG received no treatment. Positron emission tomography with computed tomography (PET-CT) was used to test for differences in brain activation between the TAG and CAG versus MG, respectively.ResultsTraditional acupuncture treatment was more effective for pain reduction than control acupuncture treatment. The TAG showed higher brain metabolism than the MG in the middle temporal cortex (MTC), orbital frontal cortex (OFC), insula, middle frontal gyrus, angular gyrus, post-cingulate cortex (PCC), the precuneus, and the middle cingulate cortex (MCC). Metabolism decreased in the parahippocampus, hippocampus, fusiform gyrus, postcentral gyrus, and cerebellum in the TAG compared with the MG. In the CAG, metabolism increased compared with the MG in the MTC, supratemporal gyrus, supramarginal gyrus, and MCC, whereas metabolism decreased in the cerebellum.ConclusionsAcupuncture stimulation of different points on similar body regions in migraine patients reduced pain and induced different levels of cerebral glucose metabolism in pain-related brain regions. These findings may support the functional specificity of migraine- treatment-related acupoint.Trial registrationThe number of our clinical trial registration is: ChiCTR-TRC-11001813, and the protocol and inclusion criteria have already been registered as ChiCTR-TRC-11001813.

BackgroundAcupuncture has analgesic effect to most pain conditions. Many neuroimaging studies were conducted to explore acupoint specificity in pain and other condition, but till now there is still discrepancy. Based on our previous finding, this study investigated the brain metabolism changes of acupuncture analgesia induced by sub-specific acupoint and non-acupoint stimulation.Methods30 migraineurs were included and randomly assigned to 3 groups: Acupuncture Group (AG), Sham Acupuncture Group (SAG) and Migraine Group (MG). In AG, a combination sub-specific points of Shaoyang meridians, Luxi (TE19), San Yangluo (TE8), and Xi Yangguan(GB33) has been stimulated with electroacupuncture, while non-acupoints for SAG were used and MG received no treatment. Positron emission tomography with computed tomography (PET-CT) was used to identify differences in brain glucose metabolism between groups.ResultsIn the AG, brain glucose metabolism increase compared with the MG was observed in the middle frontal gyrus, postcentral gyrus, the precuneus, parahippocampus, cerebellum and middle cingulate cortex (MCC), and decrease were observed in the left hemisphere of Middle Temporal Cortex (MTC).In the SAG, compared with MG, glucose metabolism increased in the poster cingulate cortex (PCC), insula, inferior temporal gyrus, MTC, superior temporal gyrus, postcentral gyrus, fusiform, inferior parietal lobe, superior parietal lobe, supramarginal gyrus, middle occipital lobe, angular and precuneus; while, decreased in cerebellum, parahippocampus.ConclusionsAcupuncture stimulation at both sub-specific acupoint and non-acupoint yields ameliorating effect to migraine pain, but with evidently differed central mechanism as measured by PET-CT. The pattern of brain glucose metabolism change in acupoint is pertinent and targeted, while in non-acupoint that was disordered and randomized. These finding may provide new perspectives into the validation of acupoint specificity, optimizing acupuncture analgesia and revealing central mechanism of acupuncture analgesia by neuroimaging measurement.Trial registrationThis trial was registered in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, with registration no. ChiCTR-TRC-11001813.

The simple IADPSG fasting plasma glucose criterion increased the Chinese population with gestational diabetes by 200%. The increased population with gestational diabetes was not significantly associated with excess obstetric and neonatal morbidity.