%0 Journal Article
%T Local Anesthesia at ST36 to Reveal Responding Brain Areas to deqi
%A Ling-min Jin
%A Cai-juan Qin
%A Lei Lan
%A Jin-bo Sun
%A Fang Zeng
%A Yuan-qiang Zhu
%A Shu-guang Yu
%A Hai-yan Yin
%A Yong Tang
%J Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
%D 2014
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2014/987365
%X Background. Development of non-deqi control is still a challenge. This study aims to set up a potential approach to non-deqi control by using lidocaine anesthesia at ST36. Methods. Forty healthy volunteers were recruited and they received two fMRI scans. One was accompanied with manual acupuncture at ST36 (DQ group), and another was associated with both local anesthesia and manual acupuncture at the same acupoint (LA group). Results. Comparing to DQ group, more than 90 percent deqi sensations were reduced by local anesthesia in LA group. The mainly activated regions in DQ group were bilateral IFG, S1, primary motor cortex, IPL, thalamus, insula, claustrum, cingulate gyrus, putamen, superior temporal gyrus, and cerebellum. Surprisingly only cerebellum showed significant activation in LA group. Compared to the two groups, bilateral S1, insula, ipsilateral IFG, IPL, claustrum, and contralateral ACC were remarkably activated. Conclusions. Local anesthesia at ST36 is able to block most of the deqi feelings and inhibit brain responses to deqi, which would be developed into a potential approach for non-deqi control. Bilateral S1, insula, ipsilateral IFG, IPL, claustrum, and contralateral ACC might be the key brain regions responding to deqi. 1. Introduction deqi, also called needle sensation, refers to the sensations of soreness, numbness, fullness, heaviness, and so forth around the acupoints of patients when the needle is inserted to a certain depth. At the same time, the operator may feel heaviness or tension around the needle. As one of the most classic and important concepts originated from Neijing (The Yellow Emperor＊s Classic of Internal Medicine), deqi has drawn increasing attention of researchers recently [1每5]. The studies on deqi mainly focused on four directions: (1) identifying the relationship between deqi and acupuncture efficacy [6每10]; (2) quantifying the deqi sensations and making deqi visualization and objectification [11每13]; (3) investigating the influence factors on deqi such as insertion site, insertion depth, puncture manipulation and needle retaining time, and body position [14每19]; (4) exploring the mechanisms of deqi [20每31]. Whatever direction of investigations on deqi, it is essential to establish an appropriate non-deqi control. To date, several kinds of sham acupuncture strategies have been employed as non-deqi control, which include on-invasive placebo stimulation (Von Frey, Streitberger Needle, etc.) at the same acupuncture point or nonacupuncture point [7, 29, 31], superficial needling at the same acupuncture point or
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2014/987365/