Acupuncture effects on the pulse spectrum of radial pressure pulse in dyspepsia

This study is to investigate the influences of acupuncture for dyspepsia on the Radial Pressure Pulse (RPP) between the Chun, Guan and Chy positions of the right/left wrist. Two series of experiments were designed; for the first series, 30 patients with dyspepsia (Group P) and 30 normal subjects (Group N) were seated to undergo the measurements of pulse pressure waveforms from radial artery by sphygmograph. The parameters of RPP included the spectral energy of 0-10 Hz (SE(0-10 Hz)), 10-50 Hz (SE(10-50 Hz)) and 13-50 Hz (SE(13-50 Hz)). For the second series, acupuncture was administered at the right and left Tsu San Li (St-36) points for the same 30 dyspepsia patients, and then their pulse pressure waveforms were re-examined. The results showed that the SE(0-10 Hz) at Right Guan (RB) (p < 0.05), the SE(10-50 Hz) at RB (p < 0.01), and the SE(13-50 Hz) at RB (p < 0.01) and Left Guan (LB) (p < 0.05) of Group P were significantly greater than that of Group N. After the acupuncture, there were significant decreases in the SE(0-10 Hz) only at RB (p < 0.01), in the SE(10-50 Hz) at RB (p < 0.01), Right Chy (RC) (p < 0.05) and LB (p < 0.05), and in the SE(13-50 Hz) RB (p < 0.01), RC (p < 0.05) and LB (p < 0.01). We concluded that the pulse-frequency spectrum at RB was a more effective characteristic for dyspepsia patients, and the acupuncture had an effect on SE(10-50 Hz) and SE(13-50 Hz) more obviously than that on SE(0-10 Hz).