ABSTRACT
Clinical studies have shown that acupuncture therapy is effective for certain cardiovascular diseases, especially cardiac arrhythmia resulting from neural dysfunction. The therapeutic efficacy varies depending on types of diseases, acupoints stimulated and acupuncture manipulation (or electroacupuncture parameters). The mechanistic research shows that acupuncture signal initiated at the acupoints is transferred to the brain through afferent nervous pathway and thus modulates the function of neurotransmitter systems. Then, the output signaling cascades relieve the cardiovascular dysfunction through efferent neural regulation. There are also several lines of evidence suggesting that the acupuncture effects involve complex mechanisms at multiple levels, including intracellular signal transduction, gene expression, endocrine secretion, humoral and dielectric regulation. Therefore, the acupuncture effects on cardiovascular disorders are dependent on an integrated mechanism mediated by multiple factors at central and peripheral levels. However, the detail of the mechanism is largely unclear yet. The potential problems in the literature are briefly discussed in this review.
