Lombardi Federico, Belletti Sebastiano, Battezzati Pier Maria, Lomuscio Alberto
Federico Lombardi, Sebastiano Belletti, Pier Maria Battezzati, Alberto Lomuscio, Department of Medicine, Surgery and Dentistry, University of Milan, 20147 Milan, Italy.
World J Cardiol. 2012 Mar 26;4(3):60-5. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v4.i3.60.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, stimulation of the Neiguan spot has been utilized to treat palpitations and symptoms related to different cardiovascular diseases. We evaluated whether acupuncture might exert an antiarrhythmic effect on patients with paroxysmal or persistent atrial fibrillation (AF). Two sets of data are reviewed. The first included patients with persistent AF who underwent electrical cardioversion to restore sinus rhythm. The second included patients with symptomatic paroxysmal AF. All subjects had normal ventricular function. Acupuncture treatment consisted of 10 acupuncture sessions on a once a week basis with puncturing of the Neiguan, Shenmen and Xinshu spots. In patients with persistent AF, the recurrence rate after acupuncture treatment was similar to that observed in patients on amiodarone, but significantly smaller than that measured after sham acupuncture treatment or in the absence of any antiarrhythmic drugs. In a small group of patients with paroxysmal AF, acupuncture resulted in a significant reduction in the number and duration of symptomatic AF episodes. In conclusion, we observed that acupuncture of the Neiguan spot was associated with an antiarrhythmic effect, which was evident in patients with both persistent and paroxysmal AF. These preliminary data, observed in 2 small groups of AF patients, need to be validated in a larger population but strongly suggest that acupuncture may be an effective non-invasive and safe antiarrhythmic tool in the management of these patients.
在传统中医中，刺激内关穴已被用于治疗心悸及与不同心血管疾病相关的症状。我们评估了针刺疗法对阵发性或持续性心房颤动（AF）患者是否可能发挥抗心律失常作用。回顾了两组数据。第一组包括接受电复律以恢复窦性心律的持续性AF患者。第二组包括有症状的阵发性AF患者。所有受试者心室功能均正常。针刺治疗包括每周进行10次针刺治疗，针刺内关、神门和心俞穴。在持续性AF患者中，针刺治疗后的复发率与服用胺碘酮的患者相似，但显著低于假针刺治疗后或未使用任何抗心律失常药物时测得的复发率。在一小部分阵发性AF患者中，针刺显著减少了有症状AF发作的次数和持续时间。总之，我们观察到针刺内关穴具有抗心律失常作用，这在持续性和阵发性AF患者中均很明显。在两组AF小患者群体中观察到的这些初步数据需要在更大规模人群中得到验证，但强烈表明针刺可能是管理这些患者的一种有效的非侵入性且安全的抗心律失常工具。
