Effect of electroacupuncture at the acupoints for Tiaozang Xingshen on cerebral metabolism in the patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus-associated cognitive dysfunction / 中国针灸

OBJECTIVES@#To investigate the cerebral metabolism in the patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus-associated cognitive dysfunction (T2DACD) and explore the mechanism of electroacupuncture (EA) at the acupoints for Tiaozang Xingshen (adjusting zangfu function and rescuing the spirit) in treatment of T2DACD, using magnetic resonance spectroscopy.@*METHODS@#Fifteen patients with T2DACD (observation group) and 22 healthy subjects (control group) were enrolled. In the observation group, the patients were treated with EA for Tiaozang Xingshen at Baihui (GV 20) and Shenting (GV 24), and bilateral Feishu (BL 13), Pishu (BL 20), Shenshu (BL 23), Zusanli (ST 36), Sanyinjiao (SP 6), Hegu (LI 4) and Taichong (LR 3). EA was operated with disperse-dense wave, 2 Hz/100 Hz in frequency and 0.1 mA to 1.0 mA in current intensity; 30 min each time, once daily. One course of EA consisted of 5 treatments, at the interval of 2 days and the intervention lasted 8 courses. Before treatment in the control group, before and after treatment in the observation group, the score of Montreal cognitive assessment scale (MoCA), the score of clinical dementia rating (CDR), Flanker paradigm, Stroop paradigm, Nback paradigm, the score of self-rating anxiety scale (SAS), the score of self-rating depression scale (SDS), and the score of Hamilton depression rating scale (HAMD) were evaluated separately; the glycolipid metabolic indexes (fasting plasma glucose [FPG], glycosylated hemoglobin type A1c [HbA1c], total cholesterol [TC], triacylglycerol [TG], high-density lipoprotein cholesterol [HDL-C] and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol [LDL-C]) were determined；with the magnetic resonance spectroscopy technique adopted, the metabolites in the basal ganglia area were detected. The correlation analysis was performed for the metabolite values with MoCA score, CDR score , Flanker paradigm, Stroop paradigm, and Nback paradigm.@*RESULTS@#Before treatment, compared with the control group, in the observation group, MoCA score was lower (P<0.001), CDR score and the levels of FPG and HbA1c were higher (P<0.001); the reaction times of Flanker non-conflict, Flanker conflict, Stroop neutrality, Stroop congruence, Stroop conflict, and 1-back were prolonged (P<0.05, P<0.001), and the accuracy of Flanker conflict, Stroop conflict, and 1-back decreased (P<0.05, P<0.01); the ratio of N-acetyl aspartate (NAA) to creatine (Cr) in the left basal ganglia area was dropped (P<0.001), and that of myo-inositol (MI) to Cr in the right side increased (P<0.05). In the observation group after treatment, compared with the levels before treatment, MoCA score was higher (P<0.001), the scores of CDR, SAS and HAMD were reduced (P<0.01, P<0.05), the reaction times of Flanker conflict and Stroop conflict shortened (P<0.001, P<0.05), and the accuracy of Flanker conflict and 1-back increased (P<0.001, P<0.05); the ratio of NAA to Cr in the left basal ganglia area and that of the gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) to Cr in the right increased (P<0.05), that of MI to Cr in the right decreased (P<0.05). Before treatment, in the observation group, the ratio of MI to Cr in the right basal ganglia area was positively correlated with the reaction time of Stroop congruence (r=0.671, P=0.012) and this ratio was positively correlated with the reaction time of Stroop conflict (r=0.576, P=0.039).@*CONCLUSIONS@#Electroacupuncture for "adjusting zangfu function and rescuing the mind" improves the cognitive function of T2DACD patients, which may be related to the regulation of NAA, MI and GABA levels in the basal ganglia.

Applications of MRS in acute and subacute stage of diffuse axonal inj ury / 实用放射学杂志

Objective To investigate the characteristic of MRS in patients suffered diffuse axonal injury (DAI)in acute and suba-cute stage,and the correlation between MRS changes and the severity of disease.Methods We reported MRI and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy studies of 3 6 head-inj ured patients in acute and subacute stage.Proton magnetic resonance spectra were ac-quired from the white matter and gray matter of bibateral frontal lobe that on conventional MRI appeared normal by using 2D MRSI at 3.0T MRI .30 volunteers as contronl were studied at the same time.Results In patient group,N-acetylaspartate/creatine ratios were (2.14±0.15)and (1.71±0.08)choline/creatine ratios were(1.35±0.13)and (1.03±0.08)for the white matter and the gray matter,respectivily.The brain N-acetylaspartate/creatine ratio was reduced and the choline/creatine ratio was increased in pa-tient group compared with the controls.The increase in the choline/creatine ratio was significant even in the moderate and severe in-j ured groups.Furthermore,there was a significantly correlation between the severity of head inj ury and the N-acetylaspartate/cho-line ratio,and changes in patients with metabolite ratios of the GCS score had a strong correlation.Conclusion We conclude that DAI patients with normal conventional imaging manifestations of the frontal lobe appear metabolite ratio change,suggesting the existence of local cerebral inj ury,and it has a strong correlation between the prognosis and MRS changes.MRS may provide an useful method that can tell us the severity of the brain inj ury in patients with DAI .