Blood pressure, heart rate and sympathetic nerve activity were measured in all the patients following a four-minute mental stress test.
Mental stress was produced by having participants perform math problems in their heads and answer aloud, or by a color/word conflict test. In the word test, names of colors are written in ink different from the printed word. Participants must say the name of the color, not read the word.
The acupuncture group took the stress test again, but this time acupuncture needles were inserted and left in place for 20 minutes. After the first test, sympathetic nerve activity increased by about 25 percent, as measured by electrodes placed on nerves near the patients knees, but there was no increase in this activity among the acupuncture patients following the second stress test.
After undergoing identical mental stress tests, patients in the no needle group were told that acupuncture needles were being inserted in the backs of their necks. But no needles were actually used, and no decrease in their sympathetic nerve activation during mental stress occurred, which shows that there was no placebo effect occurring, Middlekauff says. Similarly, in the non-acupoint group no decrease in their sympathetic nerve activation during mental stress occurred.
Blood pressure and heart rate were unaffected by the acupuncture, and both increased after mental stress testing in all groups, but sympathetic nerve activation was significantly reduced in the acupuncture group, she says.
Thus, they conclude acupuncture can reduce sympathetic nerve activity in individuals with chronic heart failure.
Middlekauff says further study is needed before acupuncture could be recommend as a routine treatment for patients with severe heart failure.
We need to do more studies in large patient populations and repeat the acupuncture procedures over a period of weeks, r
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Contact: Carole Bullock
214-706-1279
American Heart Association
14-Nov-2001