Department of Neurosurgery, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
Acta Neurochir (Wien). 2010 Aug;152(8):1367-73; discussion 1373. doi: 10.1007/s00701-010-0678-6. Epub 2010 May 15.
It has been shown that transcutaneous electrical neurostimulation (TENS) reduces sympathetic tone. Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) has proven qualities to improve coronary, peripheral, and cerebral blood circulation. Therefore, we postulate that TENS and SCS affect the autonomic nervous system in analogous ways. In this line of thought, cervical application of TENS might be a useful and simple adjunct in the treatment of cerebrovascular disease by improving cerebral blood flow. Experiments were performed in order to assess whether cervical TENS is safe and whether an effect on cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFV) can be shown in healthy subjects.
A controlled, non-randomized, phase 1 study was performed with 20 healthy volunteers. Cervical TENS was applied in several frequencies, with and without hyperventilation. Continuous registration of blood pressure, pulse, CBFV (estimated by transcranial Doppler sonography) and end-tidal carbon dioxide concentration was performed.
Cervical TENS was well-tolerated by all subjects. Despite small effects on heart rate (HR) and mean arterial blood pressure (MAP), a significant effect on middle cerebral artery (MCA) blood flow velocity was not demonstrated. No effect of age, gender, current or session order on MCA, HR, or MAP was found. TENS did not influence the effect of hyperventilation.
In these experiments, application of cervical TENS is proven to be a safe procedure. However, no effects on cerebral blood flow velocity could be detected, perhaps due to the intact cerebral autoregulation in the healthy volunteers.
经证实，经皮神经电刺激（TENS）可降低交感神经张力。脊髓刺激（SCS）已被证明具有改善冠状动脉、外周和脑血液循环的作用。因此，我们假设 TENS 和 SCS 以类似的方式影响自主神经系统。基于这一思路，经颈部应用 TENS 可能通过改善脑血流而成为治疗脑血管疾病的有用且简单的辅助手段。为此进行了实验，以评估经颈部 TENS 是否安全，以及是否可以在健康受试者中显示对脑血流速度（CBFV）的影响。
进行了一项具有 20 名健康志愿者的对照、非随机、1 期研究。以不同频率在颈部施加 TENS，同时或不进行过度通气。连续记录血压、脉搏、CBFV（通过经颅多普勒超声估计）和呼气末二氧化碳浓度。
所有受试者均能很好地耐受颈部 TENS。尽管心率（HR）和平均动脉血压（MAP）有轻微影响，但未显示出对大脑中动脉（MCA）血流速度的显著影响。未发现年龄、性别、当前或会话顺序对 MCA、HR 或 MAP 有影响。TENS 并未影响过度通气的效果。
在这些实验中，经颈部应用 TENS 被证明是一种安全的程序。然而，由于健康志愿者的脑自主调节完整，未检测到对脑血流速度的影响。
