Department of Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine, University of North Texas Health Science Center, Fort Worth, Texas.
J Altern Complement Med. 2013 Feb;19(2):92-6. doi: 10.1089/acm.2011.0031. Epub 2012 Sep 20.
Osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) focused on the upper cervical spine is theorized to affect the function of the vagus nerve and thereby influence the parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system. This study was designed to determine the acute effect of upper cervical spine manipulation on cardiac autonomic control as measured by heart rate variability.
Nineteen healthy, young adult subjects underwent three different experimental interventions administered in random order: cervical OMT, sham manipulation, and time control. Six minutes of electrocardiographic data were collected before and after each intervention, and heart rate variability was assessed by both time-domain and frequency-domain measures.
No differences in resting heart rate or any measure of heart rate variability were observed between the baseline periods prior to each intervention. The OMT protocol resulted in an increase in the standard deviation of the normal-to-normal intervals (0.12±0.082 seconds, p<0.01), an increase in the high frequency spectral power (p=0.03), and a decrease in the low/high frequency spectral ratio (p=0.01) relative to the sham and time control conditions. No significant differences between sham and time control were observed (p>0.11 for all variables).
These data support the hypothesis that upper cervical spine manipulation can acutely affect measures of heart rate variability in healthy individuals.
针对上颈椎的整脊手法治疗（OMT）理论上可以影响迷走神经的功能，从而影响自主神经系统的副交感分支。本研究旨在通过心率变异性来确定上颈椎手法治疗对心脏自主控制的急性影响。
19 名健康的年轻成年受试者以随机顺序接受三种不同的实验干预：颈椎 OMT、假手法和时间对照。在每次干预前后采集 6 分钟的心电图数据，并通过时域和频域测量评估心率变异性。
在每次干预之前的基础期，静息心率或任何心率变异性测量均无差异。与假手法和时间对照条件相比，OMT 方案导致正常-正常间隔标准差增加（0.12±0.082 秒，p<0.01），高频谱功率增加（p=0.03），低频/高频谱比降低（p=0.01）。假手法和时间对照之间无显著差异（所有变量的 p>0.11）。
这些数据支持上颈椎手法治疗可以急性影响健康个体心率变异性测量的假设。
