Laboratory of Digital Medical Imaging, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui University of TCM, Hefei, Anhui 230031, China.
Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2013;2013:175278. doi: 10.1155/2013/175278. Epub 2013 May 21.
In recent years, neuroimaging studies of acupuncture have explored extensive aspects of brain responses to acupuncture in finding its underlying mechanisms. Most of these studies have been performed on healthy adults. Only a few studies have been performed on patients with diseases. Brain responses to acupuncture in patients with the same disease at different pathological stages have not been explored, although it may be more important and helpful in uncovering its underlying mechanisms. In the present study, we used fMRI to compare brain responses to acupuncture in patients with Bell's palsy at different pathological stages with normal controls and found that the brain response to acupuncture varied at different pathological stages of Bell's palsy. The brain response to acupuncture decreased in the early stages, increased in the later stages, and nearly returned to normal in the recovered group. All of the changes in the brain response to acupuncture could be explained as resulting from the changes in the brain functional status. Therefore, we proposed that the brain response to acupuncture is dependent on the brain functional status, while further investigation is needed to provide more evidence in support of this proposition.
近年来，针对针刺的神经影像学研究已经探索了大脑对针刺反应的广泛方面，以寻找其潜在机制。这些研究大多是在健康成年人中进行的。只有少数研究是在患有疾病的患者中进行的。尚未探讨同一疾病的不同病理阶段的患者对针刺的大脑反应，尽管这可能在揭示其潜在机制方面更为重要和有帮助。在本研究中，我们使用 fMRI 比较了不同病理阶段贝尔氏面瘫患者与正常对照组对针刺的大脑反应，发现针刺的大脑反应在贝尔氏面瘫的不同病理阶段有所不同。针刺的大脑反应在早期阶段下降，在后期阶段增加，在恢复组中几乎恢复正常。针刺大脑反应的所有变化都可以解释为是由于大脑功能状态的变化所致。因此，我们提出针刺的大脑反应取决于大脑的功能状态，而需要进一步的研究来提供更多证据支持这一观点。
