Qu Yuzhu, Peng Ying, Xiong Yan, Dong Xiaohui, Ma Peihong, Cheng Shirui
Post-Doctoral Scientific Research Workstation of Affiliated Sport Hospital, Chengdu Sport University, Chengdu, Sichuan, People's Republic of China.
Acupuncture and Tuina School, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, Sichuan, People's Republic of China.
J Pain Res. 2024 Feb 27;17:773-784. doi: 10.2147/JPR.S450515. eCollection 2024.
Acupuncture has been widely applied for treating knee osteoarthritis (KOA). Numerous studies have found that acupuncture can effectively alleviate KOA symptoms. With the advancement of neuroimaging techniques, integrating neuroimaging with in-depth investigations of acupuncture mechanisms has emerged as a hot topic in traditional Chinese medical neuroscience research. This review aimed to analyze the study design and main findings from neuroimaging studies of acupuncture-related therapy for KOA to provide a reference for future research. Original studies were sourced from English databases (PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library) and Chinese databases (Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, the Chongqing VIP database, and Wanfang database). As a result, thirteen articles were ultimately included in this review. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was the most frequently used neuroimaging technique to explore cerebral responses to acupuncture-related therapy for KOA. Findings suggested that acupuncture-related therapy could regulate some brain regions in patients with KOA. Specifically, for acupuncture, it showed that the medial pain pathway and the limbic system were involved in the regulation of KOA. Meanwhile, moxibustion induced a wide range of functional activity throughout the entire brain.
针灸已被广泛应用于治疗膝骨关节炎（KOA）。大量研究发现，针灸能有效缓解KOA症状。随着神经成像技术的进步，将神经成像与针灸机制的深入研究相结合已成为中医神经科学研究的热点话题。本综述旨在分析KOA针灸相关疗法的神经成像研究的研究设计和主要发现，为未来研究提供参考。原始研究来源于英文数据库（PubMed、Embase和Cochrane图书馆）和中文数据库（中国知网、中国生物医学文献数据库、重庆维普数据库和万方数据库）。结果，本综述最终纳入了13篇文章。功能磁共振成像（Functional magnetic resonance imaging）是探索KOA针灸相关疗法大脑反应最常用的神经成像技术。研究结果表明，针灸相关疗法可以调节KOA患者的一些脑区。具体而言，对于针灸，研究表明内侧疼痛通路和边缘系统参与了KOA的调节。同时，艾灸在整个大脑中诱导了广泛的功能活动。
