Acupuncture Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Acupuncture, including details on alternative medicine, uses, benefits, treatment, chinese medicine.

Spinal effects of acupuncture stimulation assessed by proton density-weighted functional magnetic resonance imaging at 0.2 T.

Li G, Ng MC, Wong KK, Luk KD, Yang ES

The Jockey Club MRI Center, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong.

Signal changes can be detected by proton density-weighted functional imaging in both the brain and the spinal cord. These are attributed to changes in extravascular water proton (signal enhancement by extravascular protons) density during neuronal activation. In this study, we used this technique to detect correlations between acupoint stimulation and neural activity in the spinal cord. Stimulation of acupoints associated with treatment of sensorimotor deficits (LI4 and LI11) was performed on 11 volunteers. During stimulation, 8 of the 11 subjects had consistent functional activations in C6/C7. A bilateral activation pattern was common. Our findings show that acupoint stimulation modulates activity in the spinal cord.

Published 26 December 2005 in Magn Reson Imaging, 23(10): 995-9.
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