Khan M N Afzal, Ghafoor Usman, Yoo Ho-Ryong, Hong Keum-Shik
School of Mechanical Engineering, Pusan National University, Busan, Korea.
Department of Neurology Disorders, Dunsan Hospital, Daejeon University, Daejeon, Korea.
Neural Regen Res. 2022 Aug;17(8):1850-1856. doi: 10.4103/1673-5374.332150.
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a precursor to Alzheimer's disease. It is imperative to develop a proper treatment for this neurological disease in the aging society. This observational study investigated the effects of acupuncture therapy on MCI patients. Eleven healthy individuals and eleven MCI patients were recruited for this study. Oxy- and deoxy-hemoglobin signals in the prefrontal cortex during working-memory tasks were monitored using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Before acupuncture treatment, working-memory experiments were conducted for healthy control (HC) and MCI groups (MCI-0), followed by 24 sessions of acupuncture for the MCI group. The acupuncture sessions were initially carried out for 6 weeks (two sessions per week), after which experiments were performed again on the MCI group (MCI-1). This was followed by another set of acupuncture sessions that also lasted for 6 weeks, after which the experiments were repeated on the MCI group (MCI-2). Statistical analyses of the signals and classifications based on activation maps as well as temporal features were performed. The highest classification accuracies obtained using binary connectivity maps were 85.7% HC vs. MCI-0, 69.5% HC vs. MCI-1, and 61.69% HC vs. MCI-2. The classification accuracies using the temporal features mean from 5 seconds to 28 seconds and maximum (i.e, max(5:28 seconds)) values were 60.6% HC vs. MCI-0, 56.9% HC vs. MCI-1, and 56.4% HC vs. MCI-2. The results reveal that there was a change in the temporal characteristics of the hemodynamic response of MCI patients due to acupuncture. This was reflected by a reduction in the classification accuracy after the therapy, indicating that the patients' brain responses improved and became comparable to those of healthy subjects. A similar trend was reflected in the classification using the image feature. These results indicate that acupuncture can be used for the treatment of MCI patients.
轻度认知障碍（MCI）是阿尔茨海默病的前驱症状。在老龄化社会中，开发针对这种神经疾病的恰当治疗方法势在必行。这项观察性研究调查了针刺疗法对MCI患者的影响。本研究招募了11名健康个体和11名MCI患者。使用功能近红外光谱监测工作记忆任务期间前额叶皮质中的氧合血红蛋白和脱氧血红蛋白信号。在针刺治疗前，对健康对照组（HC）和MCI组（MCI-0）进行工作记忆实验，随后对MCI组进行24次针刺治疗。针刺治疗最初进行6周（每周两次），之后再次对MCI组进行实验（MCI-1）。接着进行另一组同样持续6周的针刺治疗，之后再次对MCI组进行实验（MCI-2）。对信号进行统计分析，并基于激活图以及时间特征进行分类。使用二元连通性图获得的最高分类准确率为：HC与MCI-0相比为85.7%，HC与MCI-1相比为69.5%，HC与MCI-2相比为61.69%。使用从5秒到28秒的时间特征平均值和最大值（即max(5:28秒)）进行分类的准确率为：HC与MCI-0相比为60.6%，HC与MCI-1相比为56.9%，HC与MCI-2相比为56.4%。结果显示，针刺使MCI患者血液动力学反应的时间特征发生了变化。这表现为治疗后分类准确率降低，表明患者的大脑反应得到改善，变得与健康受试者的反应相当。在使用图像特征进行的分类中也反映出类似趋势。这些结果表明针刺可用于治疗MCI患者。
