Central Mechanism of Acupuncture at Baihui for Memory Impairment after Stroke:A Resting-state Functional Magnetic Reso-nance Imaging Study / 中国康复理论与实践

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the central mechanism of acupuncture at Baihui (GV20) for memory impairment after stroke. Meth-ods 32 stroke patients were randomized to receive acupuncture at Baihui (GV20) (as observation group) and acupuncture at Yanglingquan (GB34) (as control group) for 8 weeks. At the meantime, all participants received routine treatment including physical and occupational ther-apies. They were scanned with resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to find functional connectivity and assessed with Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS) before and after treatment. The results of WMS and functional connectivity were analyzed with Pearson's correlation. Results The memory scores and memory quotient improved significantly after treatment in the observation group (P<0.05). The functional connectivity significantly increased occurred in the left hippocampus to right inferior frontal gyrus, right middle frontal gyrus and left inferior frontal gyrus;and right hippocampus to left middle frontal gyrus, left superior frontal gyrus and left parietal lobe. Significant cor-relations were found between memory quotient and functional connectivity of hippocampus to frontal lobe and left parietal lobe in the obser-vation group. There was no statistical significance in memory scores and memory quotient in the control group. The functional connectivity significantly decreased in left hippocampus to right middle occipital gyrus, and right hippocampus to right superior temporal gyrus and right posterior lobe of cerebellum. There was no statistical correlation between functional connectivity and results of WMS. Conclusion The acu-puncture at Baihui can improves memory ability of stroke patients, which may associate with the increase of functional connectivity of hip-pocampus with frontal lobes and parietal lobes.