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Varying reactions of the vegetative nerve system to various point combinations (for example: vomiting, dizziness, diarrhea, urge to urinate, fatigue or drowsiness, headache), especially to the needling of Tai Chong (Li 3), induced us to perform biochemical studies before and after acupuncture treatment. A group of children and a group of adults were studied. The material studied was urine and blood; from the children, urine only. The following were determined in the urine: indolacetic acid, 5-hydroxy-indol-3-acetic acid, homovanillic acid, and vanillic-mandelic acid; in the blood, tyrosine and tryptophan (free and bound). Individual points with wide influence (He Gu = LI 4; Zu San Li = St 36; Tai Chong = Li 3) and their combination with generally effective points were tested. The needling of Tai Chong especially showed a clear increase in indolamine metabolism. Isolated increases in metabolites of catecholamine metabolism could be correlated with the patient's increased physical activity after acupuncture. Noteworthy is the observation that no significant chemical reactions were evident if local reactions to the needling no longer appeared at the end of a series of acupuncture treatments.

Twenty-eight patients with essential hypertension were treated with acupuncture therapy. Sixteen showed excellent improvement in terms of the lowering of blood pressure to normal and the disappearance of original symptoms. Eight and moderate improvement and 4 showed no response. The results of treatment seem to indicate that improvement is closely related to the duration of disease and the history of drug treatment. The selection of acupuncture loci and the techniques of needle insertion and manipulation are discussed in detail.

A preliminary report is presented on the possible effect of acupuncture on immune responses in rabbits injected with sheep RBC and in guninea pigs with an encephalitogenic antigen prepartion. Results from acupuncturing experimental animals at four loci-Ta-Cü, Tsu San-Li, Ch'ü-Ch'ih and Chih-Shih - strongly suggest that acupuncture has an effect on the immune response. If these observations can be substaintiated by more refined methods in subsequent experiments, a new avenue will be opened for acupuncture research.

An experiment was performed to determine whether needles inserted into appropriate acupuncture points could delay onset of a pain-terminating response more than needles inserted as placebos into inappropriate points could. A heat source contained in a modified Hardy-Wolff-Goodell dolorimeter was used as a stimulus to produce pain on the posterolateral aspects of the left forearms of volunteer subjects. Subjects pressed a switch as soon as pain was experienced, and the latency between stimulus onset and response was measured to the nearest hundredth of a second. Response latencies were recorded before and after needling, which included electrical stimulation. Needles placed in specific acupuncture points called Ho-Ku and Wai-Kaun delayed onset of the pain-terminating response slightly more than needles inserted as placebos. Even with needles in appropriate acupuncture points, analgesia was slight and subjects still experienced pain.

Responses to electrical stimulation of the tooth pulp were obtained in both baseline and test sessions for subjects receiving acupuncture, 33 per cent nitrous oxide, or control conditions. A signal-detection analysis across sessions showed that both treatment groups demonstrated reduced sensitivity to stimulation, and increases in bias against reporting strong stimuli as painful. (Key words: Acupuncture; Anesthetics, gases, nitrous oxide; Measurement techniques, sensory decision theory; Pain, sensory decision theory).

A preliminary report is presented on the results of small project utilizing acupuncture in the management of chronic painful conditions. Problems associated with patient selection and evaluation are outlined along with a suggested future mechanism for triage and assessment. A description is given of the early clinical results of this pilot project.

Forty patients, randomly assigned to an experimental and a control group, participated in a double-blind study to assess the effectiveness of acupuncture in reducing chronic pain associated with osteoarthritis. The experimental group received treatment at standard acupuncture points, and the control group at placebo points. Analysis before and after treatment showed a significant (P less than 0.05) improvement in tenderness and subjective report of pain in both groups as evaluated by two independent observers and in activity by one observer. Comparison of responses to treatment between the two groups showed no significant (P greater than 0.05) difference. Thus, both experimental and control groups showed a reduction in pain after the treatments. These results may reflect the natural course of illness, and various attitudinal and social factors.

A double blind study was conducted to establish the possible correspondence between some motor points and acupuncture loci. THe protocol calls for the acupuncturist marking the first group of volunteers with invisible ink at the acupuncture loci. Then the motor points in the same volunteer are found by electrodiagnosis. The error is made visible by UV illumination. In the second group, the procedure is reversed. A statistical analysis of the error yields the following classes of correspondences: (a) Excellent: 1st Dorsal Interosseus (hand) = LI-4; Abductor Pollicis Brevis = Lu-10; Abductor Minimi Digiti = SI-4; 1st Dorsal Interosseus (foot)=LI-3; Tibialis Anterior = Curious Locus; Orbicularis Oculi = GB-I; Frontalis = GB-14; Splenius Capitis = GB-20; Sternocleidomastoid = LI-18; Semi-Spinalis Capitis = BI-10. (b) Good: Opponens Pollicis = Curious Locus; Peroneus Longus = Curious Locus; Flexior Digitorum Longus = Ki-3 (Ki-6); Trapezius (upper) = GB-21; Rectus Abdominis=Ki-15; Vastus Medialis = Sp-10.

After learning to escape painful electrical stimulation of one leg, Cebus albifrons monkeys were presented with a random schedule of five intensities, and they consistently responded with minimal latencies to the higher intensities during control sessions. Preceding different sets of experimental sessions, the monkeys received mild electrical stimulation between loci below the knees that were intended to correspond to acupuncture points. following the majority of these “acupuncture treatments” significant elevations of escape latencies were observed at the higher stimulus intensities. The decreased reactivities to noxious stimuli were often delayed in onset following the end of “acupuncture treatments,” and substantial alterations of escape behavior were detected up to 70 hours post-treatment. Regardless of the relevance of this finding to acupuncture, it represents an unusually enduring alteration of pain sensitivity following stimulation of the body surface in a situation free from suggestive influences.

Recent reports concerning the use of acupuncture as a possible treatment for sensorineural hearing impairment were reviewed and evaluated. It was concluded that acupuncture has no effect upon the hearing ability of individuals with sensorineural losses. Further, it was suggested that subjective feelings of improvement represent a placebo effect resulting from the application of a treatment that patients believe might work and not from acupuncture itself.

This article discusses the various adverse reactions, contraindications and complications of employing acupuncture and moxibustion in therapy. A historial review of these phenomena is also presented, as well as a section on the side effects of auriculotherapy.

Six patients, diagnosed as having bilateral, sensori-neural hearing losses received audiological evaluations before and after acupuncture treatments. A comparison of mean pre- and post-treatment pure tone air conduction and speech reception thresholds indicated no significant improvement with respect to auditory acuity. Although most threshold shifts were within a +/- 5 db clinical error envelope, there was a general tendency for poorer hearing levels.

Four volunteers judged eight levels of thermal stimuli induced by a Hardy dolorimeter, varying in intensity from extremely painful to a low level seldom even perceived. Half of the 406 stimuli were applied during acupuncture and half either before insertion or after removal of the needles. The experimental design minimized or eliminated factors other than the needles themselves, i.e., no medication was given, the subjects were scientists accustomed to objectivity and, on a preceding day or days, all had become experienced in assigning numbers (individually chosen) to the sensations produced by the different stimuli. Galvanic skin resistance was also tested. The results did not show any influence of acupuncture on perception of pain or on galvanic skin resistance.

It has been-known for almost 20 yr that hypertension develops in rats sensitized by mononephrectomy and a high salt intake, if the adrenal glands are subjected to either enucleation or pedicle ligation. Recently we have shown that compression of the adrenals is equally effective. Experiments reported herein demonstrate that the response is also elicited by adrenal acupuncture, and that the incidence and severity of the disorder i s directly related to the degree of injury inflicted. We believe that the etiology of these forms of experimental hypertension is the same and depends upon an alteration of adrenocortical function engendered by these particular procedures. If this is so, then absence of the medulla, a necessary concomitant only of the first two, is not etiologically important. The same would appear to be true of the transient period of antinatriuresis which adrenal enucleate rats may display when given oral, saline during the immediate postoperative period. This does not occur under similar circu...

From October 1973 to February 1975 cardiac surgery with extracorporal circulation using Acupuncture as analgesia was performed in 88 patients in the surgical clinic of the University of Giessen. Acupuncture is performed by electric-stimulation of 8 points at the lower legs, the neck and ears with 90 V and 5-6 Hz. All patients are intubated; controlled respiration is maintained with 50% O2 and 50% N2O. During the whole operation, 20 minutes after intubation the patients are responsible. The main advantage of the new method we see in a good postoperative cooperation of the patients, which are generally extubabed in the operation room.

Due to the increasing interest in the use of acupuncture as a method for treating hearing loss, objective audiological test result data are needed. Hence, this preliminary report presents the findings of a detailed audiological assessment of the effectiveness of acupuncture as a treatment for sensorineural hearing loss on one adult man. A battery of audiological tests was administered prior to the patient's receiving eight acupuncture treatments (at one-week intervals), and this same battery of tests was repeated twice following the acupuncture treatments. The results obtained do not indicate that acupuncture holds promise for reversing sensorineural hearing loss.

Experiments were conducted on precollicular decerebrate cats to study the effects of electro-acupuncture on cutaneous polysynaptic reflexes and the underlying synaptic mechanism in the spinal cord. Acupuncture, delivered in trains of biphasic sine, sawtooth or triangular pulses to the tsusanli point in the hindlimb produced a total suppression of cutaneous polysynaptic reflexes during the initial 100–200 msec after electro-acupuncture, to be followed by a persistent subtotal inhibition for over 800 msec. Dorsal root potentials were also evoked by electro-acupuncture, with the development of negativity comparable in time to the total suppression of cutaneous polysynaptic reflexes. Stimulating regions 0.5 mm deviated from the acupuncture point horizontally or vertically resulted in negligible effects on or potentiation of cutaneous polysynaptic reflexes. Moreover, intramuscular anesthetization near the tip of the acupuncture needle diminished the analgesic effects of electro-acupuncture. The possibility was discussed that acupuncture stimulation could have activated some yet to be defined “receptors” in the deep muscle layers of the acupuncture point, resultant in the presynaptic modulation of “pain” impulses in the spinal cord.