[Effects of acupuncture at different acupoints on cerebral blood flow in cerebral ischemia model rats].
OBJECTIVE
To probe into effective methods for treatment of ischemic cerebral infarction and specificity of acupoints in the acupuncture treatment.


METHODS
The rat model of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) was established with thread ligation according to Zea-Longa's method. They were divided into normal group, non-operation group, model control group, non-acupuncture group and acupuncture group, and the acupuncture group was divided into sham-acupuncture group and four Xingnao Kaiqiao groups (contain Shuigou group, Neiguan group, Chize group, Sanyinjiao group and Weizhong group). Then they were treated by acupuncture at "Shuigou" (GV 26), "Neiguan" (PC 6), "Chize" (LU 5), "Sanyinjiao" (SP 6), "Weizhong" (BL 40) and non-acupoints, 3 times/second, for 5 seconds. Cerebral blood blow (CBF) was used for assessment of the effect.


RESULTS
As compared with the model control group, in the non-acupuncture group CBF did not significantly change (P>0.05); compared with the non-acupuncture group, after acupuncture CBF was significantly increased in the Shuigou group and the Neiguan groups (all P<0.05), but did not significantly increased in the Chize group, Sanyinjiao group and Weizhong group (all P>0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
CBF has a tendency of spontaneous cure within 72 h after cerebral infarction in the MCAO rat; acupuncture can significantly improve CBF in the MCAO rat, so it is an effective method for treatment of ischemic stroke; among the acupoints in the "Xingnao Kaiqiao" needling method, "Shuigou" (GV 26) and "Neiguan" (PC 6) have obvious effect in improvement of CBF, indicating acupoint specificity of "Shuigou" (GV 26) and "Neiguan" (PC 6) in treatment of ischemic stroke.
Tianjin University of TCM, Tianjin 300193, China.
Yu-fei
YF
Qian
Xiao-nong
XN
Fan
Ya-jie
YJ
Li
Ya-nan
YN
Zhang
Yuan-yuan
YY
Wei
Xue
X
Zhang
Hui-qun
HQ
Wu
Shu
S
Wang
Xue-min
XM
Shi
D015669:Acupuncture Points; D015670:Acupuncture Therapy; D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply*; D002545:Brain Ischemia / Q000628:therapy*; D002544:Cerebral Infarction / Q000628:therapy*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011897:Random Allocation; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar