A PET-CT study on the specificity of acupoints through acupuncture treatment in migraine patients

BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Fanrong Liang²  Ji Chen²  Hongjun Xie⁴  Wenzhong Song⁴  Xuguang Liu²  Wei Qin³  Li Fang¹  Yue Feng²  Fang Zeng²  Jie Yang² 

[1] Acupuncture Department, The third affiliated hospital of zhejiang university of TCM, hangzhou, 310005, China;Acupuncture and Tuina School, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, 610075, China;Life Science Research Center, School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, 710071, China;PET-CT center, Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital, Chengdu, 610072, China

关键词: Migraine;    PEC-CT;    Acupuncture;   

Others  :  1232092
DOI  :  10.1186/1472-6882-12-123

 received in 2011-10-19, accepted in 2012-08-05,  发布年份 2012

【 摘 要 】

Background

In 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.

Methods

Thirty 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.

Results

Traditional 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.

Conclusions

Acupuncture 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 registration

The number of our clinical trial registration is: ChiCTR-TRC-11001813, and the protocol and inclusion criteria have already been registered as ChiCTR-TRC-11001813.

【 授权许可】

   
2012 Yang et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

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