Research on Function and Mechanism of Tai Chion Cardiac Rehabilitation

With the increasing number of cardiovascular patients,more and more people are living with diseases.Cardiac rehabilitation(CR)is an effective treatment and prevention measure for cardiovascular disease(CVD),which aims to relieve both psychological and physiological stress of CVD,reduce risk of death from CVD,improve cardiovascular function and patients'quality of life.Tai Chi is popular in China and mainly used as a daily leisure activity for the elderly to strengthen their bodies.This review discusses whether Tai Chi could be taken as a positive intervention in CR and what is the exact role and its mechanisms as exercise therapy for CVD.The authors detail the role of Tai Chi on CR from the aspects of exercise capacity,risk factors of CVD and psychological factors,etc.,as well as highlight the limitation of Tai Chi research at present.

Effectiveness of electroacupuncture at Jiaji acupoints(EX-B 2), plus moxibustion and intermediate on postherpetic neuralgia: a randomized controlled trial

OBJECTIVE:To investigate the effectiveness of electroacupuncture at Jiaji acupoints(EX-B 2)plus moxibustion and intermediate frequency on postherpetic neuralgia(PHN).METHODS:A total of 140 outpatients who satisfied the inclusion criteria and volunteered for this treatment were randomly divided into treatment(n=70)and control(n=70)groups.Both groups received a localized lesion area and electroacupuncture treatment combined with moxibustion and intermediate frequency.The treatment group(TG)increased acupuncture at Jiaji acupoints(EX-B 2)and electroacupuncture.Pain and anxiety were assessed before and after 5,10,15,and 20 treatments by using visual pain simulation score(VAS)and Hamilton anxiety scale(HAMA),respectively.Clinical efficacy was also evaluated.RESULTS:The baseline between the two groups did not significantly differ(P>0.05).The VAS and HAMA scores of the two groups after treatment significantly decreased compared with those of various treatment stages(P>0.05).The HAMA score(P<0.01)of TG was lower than that of the control group(CG).The VAS score of TG was lower than that of CG in the 5th and 10th treatments(P<0.01).In the 15 th and 10 th scores,CG was also superior to TG(P<0.05).CONCLUSION:The combined treatment of electroacupuncture at Jiaji acupoints(EX-B 2),moxibustion,and intermediate frequency can relieve the pain and anxiety symptoms of PHN.The efficacy of the combined treatment was superior to traditional acupuncture.

Acupuncture-Neuroimaging Research Trends over Past Two Decades:A Bibliometric Analysis

Objective:To identify topics attracting growing research attention as well as frontier trends of acupuncture-neuroimaging research over the past two decades.Methods:This paper reviewed data in the published literature on acupuncture neuroimaging from 2000 to 2020,which was retrieved from the Web of Science database.Cite Space was used to analyze the publication years,countries,institutions,authors,keywords,co-citation of authors,journals,and references.Results:A total of 981 publications were included in the final review.The number of publications has increased in the recent 20 years accompanied by some fluctuations.Notably,the most productive country was China,while Harvard University ranked first among institutions in this field.The most productive author was Tian J with the highest number of articles(50),whereas the most co-cited author was Hui KKS(325).Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine(92)was the most prolific journal,while Neuroimage was the most co-cited journal(538).An article written by Hui KKS(2005)exhibited the highest co-citation number(112).The keywords"acupuncture"(475)and"electroacupuncture"(0.10)had the highest frequency and centrality,respectively.Functional magnetic resonance imaging(fMRI)ranked first with the highest citation burst(6.76).Conclusion:The most active research topics in the field of acupuncture-neuroimaging over the past two decades included research type,acupoint specificity,neuroimaging methods,brain regions,acupuncture modality,acupoint specificity,diseases and symptoms treated,and research type.Whilst research frontier topics were"nerve regeneration","functional connectivity","neural regeneration","brain network","fMRI"and"manual acupuncture".