Research advances in the brain mechanisms of acupuncture effects based on the BOLD-fMRI technology / 针灸推拿医学（英文版）

By summarizing the recent literatures on brain mechanisms with acupuncture intervention based on blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD)-functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the BOLD-fMRI examination and analysis methods, the points to be acupunctured, the corresponding meridian activation regions, the specific intensity range, functions and indications of the acupoints, the manifestation of 'bi-directional regulation' characteristics, fMRI performance of chronergy, laterality and needling qi of acupuncture were reviewed to provide the ideas for future research in this area.

Research advances in neurobiological mechanism of acupuncture for amblyopia / 针灸推拿医学（英文版）

Amblyopia greatly affects the physical and mental development of children. Acupuncture is effective for amblyopia, though its mechanism remains unclear. This article summarized the mechanism of acupuncture treatment of amblyopia from the perspectives of morphology of neurons in visual cortex, visual electrophysiology, and molecular biology, etc. It was found that acupuncture may treat amblyopia through repairing the morphological and ultrastructural damages of neurons in visual cortex, promoting the electrical activities in visual pathway and visual cortical neurons, and modulating the synthesis and expression levels of factors involved in visual system. Nevertheless, further studies are required to unveil the mechanism of acupuncture treatment of amblyopia.

Progress of Researches on Brain Mechanism Underlying Regulatory Effect of Acupuncture Intervention on Visual Plasticity of Amblyopia / 针刺研究

Acupuncture therapy has a positive effect in the treatment of amblyopia. This article summarizes findings of the research on brain mechanisms underlying the regulatory effect of acupuncture on visual plasticity of amblyopia. In a multi-system and multi-level viewpoints, we elaborated brain mechanism underlying the regulatory effect of acupuncture on visual plasticity in amblyopia from the perspective of ultrastructure, plasticity, electrical activities, neural coding and visual microcirculation of the neurons of the visual cortex, and the targeting points from the visual center to the effector organ.

Analysis of point-selection pattern in acupuncture-moxibustion treatment of amblyopia / 针灸推拿医学（英文版）

Objective:To analyze and summarize the characteristics and pattern in the selection of points and meridians by searching the clinical research literature about acupuncture-moxibustion treatment of amblyopia in the recent 17 years.Methods:By searching Chinese and English databases,such as China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI),PubMed,etc.,the points in 52 articles in conformity with the requirements were analyzed by frequency statistics by the order of meridians,major points,and adjunct points to summarize the rules and characteristics of the point selection.Results:In 52 articles,there were 21 articles on ear acupuncture and 31 articles on acupuncture-moxibustion treatment.Ten meridians were involved in acupuncture-moxibustion treatment of amblyopia,and the leading 3 meridians were the Bladder,Stomach and Gallbladder Meridians.There were 34 points,10 extraordinary points and 37 ear points were used in acupuncture-moxibustion treatment of amblyopia.The top 10 major points were Jingming (BL 1),Taiyang (EX-HN 5),Cuanzhu (BL 2),Fengchi (GB 20),Baihui (GV 20),Hegu (LI 4),Guangming (GB 37),Sibai (ST 2),Chengqi (ST 1) and Sizhukong (TE 23).The top 5 adjunct points were Zusanli (ST 36),Shenshu (BL 23),Ganshu (BL 18),Sanyinjiao (SP 6) and Taixi (KI 3).Conclusion:Acupuncture-moxibustion treatment of amblyopia is characterized by the selection of the points mainly from yang meridians,based upon syndromes differentiation plus personal experience,and the points mainly around the eyes and by stressed use of ear points.

Clinical assessment of chronic prostatitis based on infrared imaging technology / 中华男科学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the characteristic changes in the infrared thermogram of chronic prostatitis (CP) patients and find some evidence for the auxiliary diagnosis and therapeutic evaluation of the disease.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Fifty CP patients and 20 healthy male volunteers were included in this clinical trial. The infrared thermograms of the subjects were compared between the two groups for characteristic changes. The values obtained were used for the auxiliary diagnosis and therapeutic evaluation of the disease.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Compared with the healthy males in the same age group, the CP patients showed extremely significant abnormal changes in the average temperature value in the hypogastrium (H), pubis (P), scrotum (S), and groin (G) (P < 0.01). The average H temperature value of the CP patients was correlated negatively with the CP symptom index (CPSI) (P < 0.01, Pearsons correlation coefficient = -0.519), while the S temperature positively with CPSI (P < 0.01, Pearsons correlation coefficient = 0.446). In addition to the H value, the P, S, and G values were all correlated in different degrees with CPSI (P < 0.01), which the S value exhibited the most significantly negative correlation (Pearson's correlation coefficient = -0.898).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>There are some characteristic changes in the hypogastrium temperature of CP patients in the infrared thermogram, which has a potential application value for the auxiliary diagnosis, symptom assessment, and therapeutic evaluation of CP.</p>

Study progress of clinical electrophysiology on amblyopia / 国际眼科杂志(Guoji Yanke Zazhi)

Electrophysiology examination is an important technique in studying amblyopia, which mainly includes electrooculography( EOG), electroretinography ( ERG), visual evoked potential( VEP). This study does not only summarizes the definition, the mechanisms and the meaning of these indexes in the relevant research progress in recent years, but also makes a comment on the controversies among the relevant research conclusions.

Meta-analysis of needle-knife treatment on cervical spondylosis / 中国骨伤

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To assess the efficacy of cervical spondylosis by needle-knife treatment according to the correlated literature of RCT,to compare advantages of needle-knife treatment.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Randomized Controlled Trials about needle-knife treatment of cervical spondylosis were indexed from Chinese HowNet (CNKI) and Wanfang (WF) from 2000 to 2012, then were analyzed the efficacy by Review Manager 5.1 software.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>A total of 13 RCT literatures and 1 419 patients were included. The methods of included studies were poor in quality evaluation because of large sample and multi-center RCT studies was lacked, randomization method was not accurate enough, diagnostic criteria and efficacy evaluation were various, only four studies described long-term efficacy, most of the literature didn't describe the adverse event and fall off,all studies did not use the blind method. The Meta analysis outcome showed overall efficiency of needle-knife therapy was better than acupuncture and traction. Needle-knife therapy compared with Acupuncture, the total RR = 0.19, 95% confidence interval was (0.15, 0.24), P < 0.000.01. Compared with traction therapy the total RR = 1.30, 95% confidence intervalwas (1.18,1.42), P < 0.00001.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Compared with acupuncture therapy,the overall effectiveness of needle-knife therapy is higher;compared with traction therapy, although,needle-knife therapy has a high overall effectiveness, but because of the loss of total sample size, the outcome RCT researches to confirm.</p>

Effect of acupuncture on pattern-visual evoked potential in rats with monocular visual deprivation / 中国针灸

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore electrophysiology mechanism of acupuncture for treatment and prevention of visual deprivation effect.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Eighteen healthy 15-day Evans rats were randomly divided into a normal group, a model group and an acupuncture group, 6 rats in each one. Deprivation amblyopia model was established by monocular eyelid suture in the model group and acupuncture group. Acupuncture was applied at "Jingming" (BL 1), "Chengqi" (ST 1), "Qiuhou" (EX-HN 7) and "Cuanzhu" (BL 2) in the acupuncture group. The bilateral acupoints were selected alternately, one side for a day, and totally 14 days were required. The effect of acupuncture on visual evoked potential in different spatial frequencies was observed.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Under three different kinds of spatial frequencies of 2 X 2, 4 X 4 and 8 X 8, compared with normal group, there was obvious visual deprivation effect in the model group where P1 peak latency was delayed (P<0.01) while N1 -P1 amplitude value was decreased (P<0.01). Compared with model group, P1 peak latency was obviously ahead of time (P<0.01) while N1-P1 amplitude value was increased (P<0.01) in the acupuncture group, there was no statistical significance compared with normal group (P>0.05). Under spatial frequency of 4 X 4, N1-P1 amplitude value was maximum in the normal group and acupuncture group. With this spatial frequency the rat's eye had best resolving ability, indicating it could be the best spatial frequency for rat visual system.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The visual system has obvious electrophysiology plasticity in sensitive period. Acupuncture treatment could adjust visual deprivation-induced suppression and slow of visual response in order to antagonism deprivation effect.</p>

Decreasing effect of electro-acupuncture at Sanyin points on inflammatory cytokines in autoimmune prostatitis rats / 中华男科学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To observe the changes of inflammatory cytokines in autoimmune prostatitis (AIP) rats treated by electro-acupuncture (EA) at Sanyin points.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>We selected 40 Wistar male rats in this study, 10 as normal controls, and the other 30 made AIP models by intradermal injection of protein purification liquid from the prostate of allogeneic male rats with dual immune adjuvant. Then we randomly divided the AIP models into a model, a Cernilton control and an EA group of equal number, the latter two groups treated by Cernilton enema and EA, respectively. After 15 days of treatment, all the animals were sacrificed for detection of the levels of TNF-alpha, iNOS, MDA and T-AOC in the prostate tissue.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Compared with the normal controls, the model rats showed significantly elevated TNF-alpha expression ([15.31 +/- 1.36] vs [32.20 +/- 1.65] pg/ml, P < 0.01), iNOS activity ([0.81 +/- 0.33] vs [1.25 +/- 0.23] U/ml, P < 0.01) and MDA content ([0.66 +/- 0.14] vs [0.91 +/- 0.21] nmol/ml, P < 0.05), but markedly reduced T-AOC activity ([1.56 +/- 0.16] vs [1.11 +/- 0.15] U/ml, P < 0.01). In comparison with the model group, the EA group exhibited significantly reduced levels of TNF-alpha ([17.32 +/- 2.69 ] pg/ml, P < 0.01), iNOS ([0.98 +/- 0.5 ] U/ml, P < 0.05) and MDA ([0.70 +/- 0.20] nmol/ml, P < 0.05), but remarkably increased level of T-AOC ([1.44 +/- 0.26] U/ml, P < 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Electro-acupuncture at Sanyin points can protect the prostate tissue from morphological damage and reduce inflammatory reaction by decreasing pro-inflammatory cytokine activity, vascular permeability and inflammatory cell infiltration and increasing the activity of the antioxidant defense system.</p>