title: Acupuncture to Danzhong but not to Zhongting increases the cardiac vagal component of heart rate variability.
abstract: There is currently no convincing evidence that acupuncture has any specific effects on autonomic nervous function as assessed by heart rate variability (HRV). We examined whether the stimulation of neighboring acupunctural points, Danzhong (CV17) and Zhongting (CV16) on the anterior median line of the thorax, induced different effects on HRV. In 14 healthy males, epifascial acupunctural stimulation (single instantaneous needle stimulation on the fascial surface without producing De-Qi sensation) was performed at CV17 and CV16 on different days in a clinical study utilizing a cross-over design. We found that the stimulation of CV17, but not of CV16, decreased the heart rate (P=0.01, repeated measures ANOVA) and increased the power of the high-frequency component of the HRV, an index of cardiac vagal activity (P=0.01). The low-frequency to high-frequency ratio, an index of sympathetic activity showed no significant changes for either point. Our observations could not be explained as either nonspecific or psychological/placebo effects of needle stimulation. This study provides strong evidence for the presence of a specific acupunctural point that causes the modulation of cardiac autonomic function.
authors.affiliation: The Oriental Medical Center, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan.
authors.forename: Yasuzo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kurono
authors.forename: Munenori
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Minagawa
authors.forename: Tatsuyo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ishigami
authors.forename: Atsushi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yamada
authors.forename: Toshinori
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kakamu
authors.forename: Junichiro
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hayano
mesh_terms: D015669:Acupuncture Points; D015670:Acupuncture Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D001341:Autonomic Nervous System / Q000502:physiology*; D018592:Cross-Over Studies; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male