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US has the advantages of preventing infection, dispelling the patient’s fear to acupuncture, and setting stimulation frequency and intensity objectively and quantifiably. Ultrasound stimulation (US) is a noninvasive method that applies proper ultrasound energy to the acupoint through an ultrasound transducer.
NAPADOW ET AL. HUMAN BRAIN MAPPING 2007 MANUAL
For these reasons, some alternative modalities of manual acupuncture (MA) have been developed to stimulate the acupoint, such as ultrasound, laser, and electricity. However, inserting the needle to a specific meridian point at definite depth has the risk of infection and requires more training and experience. These sensations, collectively called de qi, are considered to be related to clinical efficacy in traditional Chinese medicine.
NAPADOW ET AL. HUMAN BRAIN MAPPING 2007 SKIN
Acupuncture involves stimulation with needles inserted in the skin at definite depth, eliciting a composite of sensations, such as soreness, numbness, fullness, dull pain, and warmness. IntroductionĪcupuncture has been shown to be effective in relieving Bell’s palsy, pain, and anxiety and modulating the physical function of the human body. Our results indicate that US may be a possible noninvasive alternative method to MA due to its similar activation patterns. Only US at ST 36 produced a significant signal increase in the inferior parietal lobule and decrease in the posterior cingulate cortex, whereas MA at ST 36 produced a significant signal increase in the lentiform nucleus and cerebellum.
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Both US and MA at ST 36 produced activations in somatosensory and limbic/paralimbic regions (postcentral gyrus, insula, middle prefrontal cortex, and anterior cingulate cortex). On-off block design stimulation was used for the recording of fMRI-related brain patterns. 16 healthy subjects underwent US and MA procedures in an interval of more than one week. In the present work, we employed task state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to explore the human brain’s activation to US and MA at ST 36 ( Zusanli) which is one of the most commonly used acupoints in acupuncture-related studies. Although the brain activation to MA at acupoints is investigated by numerous studies, the brain activation to US at acupoints remains unclear. Clinical and experimental data suggest that ultrasound stimulation (US) at acupoints can produce similar effective treatment compared to manual acupuncture (MA).