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At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

The effects of electroacupuncture at the heart meridian on myocardial contractile function in rabbits with myocardial ischemia.

Acute myocardial ischemia was induced by intravenous injection of pituitrin, and electroacupuncture (EA) was applied at the Heart and Lung Meridians (HM and LM), 3 points on each meridian. The changes in the left intraventricular pressure (LVP), the maximum rise rate of intraventricular pressure (LVP dp/dtmax), the area of cardiac force loop (ACFL), and the maximum shortening velocity of myocardial contractile element (Vmax) were observed. As a result, there were significant differences in the improvement of LVP, LVP dp/dtmax, ACFL and Vmax between EA at HM and LM. The regulatory action of EA at HM on the myocardial contractile function was significantly better than that of EA at LM, indicating that HM has a close relationship with the myocardial contractile function.

Animals↗

[Effect of Governer Meridian electro-acupuncture on water channel aquaporin-4 in experimental spinal cord injured rats].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate effects of electro-acupuncture (EA) on Du Meridian on the water channel aquaporin-4 (AQP-4) expression and hind limbs function recovery in experimental spinal cord injured rats. METHODS: One hundred and fifty SD rats were divided into the normal group, the model group and the EA group, with 50 rats in each group, modified Allen method was used to establish spinal cord injury model in the model and EA group. Rats in the EA group was EA on Dazhui and Ming men acupoints after modelling successfully. At the 1st, 3rd, 7th, 14th and 21th day after injury, the hind limbs function of rats was evaluated by BBB scales respectively, and the AQP-4 expression in spinal cord tissue was determined by immunohistochemistry technique and quantity analysed with image analyzer. RESULTS: At the 1st day after spinal cord injury, the AQP-4 expression was significantly increased in gray matter and white matter of spinal cord in the model group and the EA group, which reached the peak at the 3rd day, but showed significant difference between the two groups (P < 0.05), and the difference at the 7th, 14th and 21th day became more significant (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: EA on Du Meridian can down-regulate AQP-4 expression after spinal cord injury, inhibit spinal cord edema for alleviating secondary spinal cord lesion, so as to protect the residual normal spinal cord tissues and promote the rebuilding of nervous tissues.

Animals↗

[Animal experiments on meridian-reaching actions of traditional Chinese medicinal herbs].

With the level variations of cAMP and cGMP in cat tissues as the criteria, the meridian actions reaching of Fructus Schisandrae, Radix Stephaniae Tetrandrae and Herba Houttuyniae were studied tentatively in animal experiments. The result obtained in this way approximates to the understanding of the meridian reaching actions of Chinese medicinal herbs as approved by traditional Chinese medicine.

Animals↗

[Confocal laser scan microscope system and its applications on studying acupuncture and meridian].

In this paper, the principle of a confocal laser scan microscope system and its advantages are introduced. Its applications in biology and research of acupuncture and meridian are also introduced. Compared with conventional microscope, the confocal laser scan microscope system has many advantages such as high resolution fluorescent image, 3-dimension reconstruction, images quantitative analysis of concentration of ion within a cell, cell-cell communication and so on. It will offer many mathods for researching acupuncture and meridian.

Acupuncture Therapy↗

[The influence of electroacupuncture on the mast cells in the acupoints of the stomach meridian].

Giving electroacupuncture at unilateral "Biguan" and "Zusanli" points, we observed the rat subcutaneous mast cells of "Tianshu", "Biguan", "Futu", "Zusanli" and "Xiajuxu" acupoints in bilateral Stamach Meridian. It was found that the numbers of mast cells in all the acupoints studied were higher than that in the non acupoint area. The numbers of mast cell in acupoints were increased under electroacupuncture, while that in non acupoint area was not changed. The results suggested the mast cells play an important role in the functions of the Meridian.

Acupuncture Points↗

[Segmental influence of dorsal root action potentials evoked by stimulating the acupoints after acupuncture along meridians].

Using the method of recording the corresponding dorsal root action potentials evoked by stimulating the acupoints, we found that electro-acupuncture could not only expand the segmental of potentials, but also amplitude the potentials. The results proved the acupuncture sensation may be transsegmental afferent after acupuncture along the meridians. This study gave a new evidence for the mechanism's explanation of propagated sensation along the meridians.

Acupuncture Points↗

The decussation of the retinothalamic pathway in the cat, with a note on the major meridians of the cat's eye.

We have studied the naso-temporal division of the retinothalamic pathway of the cat by making large unilateral injections of horseradish peroxidase into the lateral geniculate nucleus. In confirmation of previous work, our retinal whole-mounts show a distinct vertical decussation line separating the contralaterally projecting nasal retina from the ipsilaterally projecting temporal retina. The ipsilateral decussation line is quite sharp, while the contralateral decussation is somewhat more diffuse, with numbers of large cells extending a few degrees into the temporal retina. However, in contrast to the results of optic tract section, our material (demonstrating the thalamic component only) does not reveal any significant population of contralaterally projecting small cells across most of the temporal retina. The previous observation of approximately 200 micrometer of naso-temporal overlap in the area centralis is confirmed here, and evidence is presented that this overlap may increase at eccentricities above the horizontal meridian. Taken together with previously published data, this demonstration of the vertical decussation line has allowed us to estimate the relative inclinations of the major meridians of the cat's eye.

Animals↗

[Corneal topography after cataract surgery with tunnel incision on a steeper meridian in inverse and oblique astigmatism].

Scleral tunnel incision at the 12 o'clock-position for no-stitch cataract surgery can increase preexisting against-the-rule astigmatism by flattening the vertical corneal meridian. An oblique axis can change by operative induction. We investigated, in a prospective study, whether reduction of such a preoperative astigmatism could be induced by locating the tunnel incision on the steeper meridian. Eighteen eyes with senile cataract and against-the-rule or oblique astigmatism of at least 0.7 diopters were operated with a standardized 5 x 6 mm scleral tunnel incision and a 6 mm PMMA posterior chamber lens. We evaluated the astigmatism with a videokeratoscopy TMS-I preoperatively and about 6 months after the surgery. The mean corneal astigmatism was 1.8 diopters pre- and 1.5 diopters postoperatively. A reduction of keratometric astigmatism was reached in 72% of cases; 17% remained unchanged. The surgically induced astigmatism calculated by Jaffer's and Clayman's vector analysis was 0.68 diopters. The technique of scleral tunnel incision with lateral or oblique approach can reduce a preexisting against-the-rule or oblique astigmatism.

Astigmatism↗

Ocular torsion and primary retinal meridians.

I measured ocular torsion during and after head- and body-tilt, ocular convergence, and conjugate gaze. Extensive examination on 15 normal human subjects and additional observations on 400 consecutive patients without extraocular motor defects failed to show static ocular tension. During dynamic head-tilt, intermittent, small-amplitude, saccadic, wheel-like torsional eye movements were recorded as moving faster than the head so that the eyes preceded the head. Between these intermittent saccades, and at the end of the head-tilt, there was no residual ocular torsion. The absence of static ocular torsion allows for formulation of a generalization linking the oculomotor to the visual sensory system. The primary retinal meridians become aligned with each other in the normal individual during binocular fixation, regardless of the position of the head in space or the point of ocular fixation. The vestibular and oculomotor systems function to inhibit rather than produce ocular torsion; the eyes are oriented to a plane in the brain rather than to the horizon. In particular, the oblique muscles function mainly to maintain the alignment of the primary retinal meridians and, therefore, to inhibit torsion in the normal state.

Adolescent↗

Reorienting attention across the horizontal and vertical meridians: evidence in favor of a premotor theory of attention.

Stimuli presented in a non-attended location are responded to much slower than stimuli presented in an attended one. The hypotheses proposed to explain this effect make reference to covert movement of attention, hemifield inhibition, or attentional gradients. The experiment reported here was aimed at discriminating among these hypotheses. Subjects were cued to attend to one of four possible stimulus locations, which were arranged either horizontally or vertically, above, below, to the right or left of a fixation point. The instructions were to respond manually as fast as possible to the occurrence of a visual stimulus, regardless of whether it occurred in a cued or in a non-cued location. In 70% of the cued trials the stimulus was presented in the cued location and in 30% in one of the non-cued locations. In addition there were trials in which a non-directional cue instructed the subject to pay attention to all four locations. The results showed that the correct orienting of attention yielded a small but significant benefit; the incorrect orienting of attention yielded a large and significant cost; the cost tended to increase as a function of the distance between the attended location and the location that was actually stimulated; and an additional cost was incurred when the stimulated and attended locations were on opposite sides of the vertical or horizontal meridian. We concluded that neither the hypothesis postulating hemifield inhibition nor that postulating movement of attention with a constant time can explain the data. The hypothesis of an attention gradient and that of attention movements with a constant speed are tenable in principle, but they fail to account for the effect of crossing the horizontal and vertical meridians. A hypothesis is proposed that postulates a strict link between covert orienting of attention and programming explicit ocular movements. Attention is oriented to a given point when the oculomotor programme for moving the eyes to this point is ready to be executed. Attentional cost is the time required to erase one ocular program and prepare the next one.

Attention↗

Perceptual completion across the vertical meridian and the role of early visual cortex.

Perceptual completion can link widely separated contour fragments and interpolate illusory contours (ICs) between them. The mechanisms underlying such long-range linking are not well understood. Here we report that completion is much poorer when ICs cross the vertical meridian than when they reside entirely within the left or right visual hemifield. This deficit reflects limitations in cross-hemispheric integration. We also show that the sensitivity to the interhemispheric divide is unique to perceptual completion: a comparable task which did not require completion showed no across-meridian impairment. We propose that these findings support the existence of specialized completion mechanisms in early visual cortical areas (V1/V2), since those areas are likely to be more sensitive to the interhemispheric divide.

Animals↗

Development of a system and improvement of the stimulus pattern to discriminate the acupuncture point and meridians.

The conventional acupuncture-point stimulus pattern uses direct current (DC) to discriminate acupuncture point and meridian lines, which are fundamental to diagnosis and treatment in Oriental medicine. However, DC is insufficiently reliable in discriminating these acupuncture points and lines. To overcome these problems, the authors extracted optimal parameters (e.g., squarelike waveform with a frequency of 4 kHz) with a single power alternating current (SPAC) stimulus pattern of 1.28 V. The SPAC stimulus pattern has little or no effect on cells and the body's physiological state and minimizes polarization and ionization of cells because it uses low voltage and alternating current. The authors developed a new meridian discrimination system that can be used with the SPAC.

Acupuncture Points↗

Dioptric power in an off-axis meridian: the torsional component.

There is much confusion about whether or not dioptric power exists in an off-axis meridian of a spherocylindrical lens. One source of this confusion is an overly simplified definition of dioptric power. This paper proposes the conditions that a good definition of dioptric power should meet. Under these conditions, dioptric power does exist in an off-axis meridian. However, that dioptric power has two components--a curvature component and a torsional component. A second source of confusion has been the neglect of the torsional component.

Convergence, Ocular↗

Refractive variation under accommodative demand: curvital and scaled torsional variances and covariance across the meridians of the eye.

Autorefractor measurements were taken on the right eye of 10 students with an external target at vergences -1.00 and -3.00 D. The refractive errors in the form of sphere, cylinder, and axis were converted to vectors h and variance-covariance matrices calculated for different reference meridians. Scatter plots are drawn in symmetric dioptric power space. The profiles of curvital and scaled torsional variances, the scaled torsional fraction, and the scaled torsional-curvital correlation are shown using a polar representation. This form of representation provides a meridional pattern of variation under accommodative demand. The profile for scaled torsional variance is characteristically in the form of a pair of rabbit ears. At both target vergences curvital variance is larger than scaled torsional variance in all the meridians of the eye: the relative magnitudes are quantified by the scaled torsional fraction. An increase in accommodative demand generally results in an increase in variance. The rabbit ears usually become larger but less well divided. The correlation between curvital and torsional powers is usually positive in the first quadrant and negative in the second quadrant. Typical, atypical, and mean typical responses are discussed.

Accommodation, Ocular↗

A prospective, randomized pilot trial of acupuncture of the kidney-bladder distinct meridian for lower urinary tract symptoms.

PURPOSE: We performed a pilot trial to assess the response of lower urinary tract symptoms and prostate specific antigen (PSA) to acupuncture in a population of patients biopsy negative for prostate cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 30 patients were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 study groups, including observation for 3 months with 6 blood samples for PSA at set intervals, 9 sessions of acupuncture in 3 months to points of the kidney-bladder distinct meridian expected to treat the prostate with 6 blood samples for PSA at set intervals and 9 sessions of acupuncture in 3 months to points not expected to treat the prostate with 6 blood samples for PSA at set intervals. The effect of acupuncture on lower urinary tract symptoms was assessed monthly using the International Prostate Symptom Score. RESULTS: Trend analysis (repeated measures ANOVA) revealed no significant changes in the 3-month period in the randomized arms. Statistical analysis showed p = 0.063 for the International Prostate Symptom Score, p = 0.945 for PSA and p = 0.37 for the free-to-total PSA ratio. CONCLUSIONS: Acupuncture to the kidney-bladder distinct meridian neither relieves lower urinary tract symptoms nor impacts PSA.

Acupuncture Points↗