Effect of acupuncture in Pericardium 6 (Neiguan) acupoint in the acute cardiovascular response to active standing in healthy subjects

Objective

To demonstrate the effect of acupuncture in Pericardium 6 (Neiguan) acupoint in the acute homeostatic response to orthostatic challenge in healthy subjects.

Design

A cross-sectional experimental study was conducted at Acupuncture Facility at Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Ciudad de México, México. Participants: Fifteen healthy university students (seven women) aged 22.5 ± 1.36 (mean ± SD) participated in the present study to investigate the changes in cardiovascular function after standing active standing and their modification with manual acupuncture in Pericardium 6 (Neiguan) acupoint in healthy volunteers.

Interventions

The treatment consisted of one session of manual acupuncture in the Pericardium 6 (Neiguan) in the right arm. The following data for continuous beat-to-beat registration: mean arterial pressure (MAP), heart rate (HR), stroke volume (SV), total peripheral resistance (TPR), and left ventricular ejection time were computed in healthy volunteers after standing. The obtained signals were plotted and averaged, and a linear correlation of each average was calculated. Besides, the Pearson correlation coefficient was calculated for the recording periods of 1–10 after the standing position in basal and treated conditions.

Results

Acupuncture was showed to increase the speed of change in MAP, HR, and TPR and decreased the speed of changes in SV and LVET when comparing the slopes of the initial cardiovascular changes related to active standing. Besides, Pearson analysis showed that acupuncture treatment modifies to higher correlation the cardiovascular responses to orthostatic stress.

Conclusions

We found that manual acupuncture in the right PC6 boosted the initial adaptive mechanisms to orthostatic stress in healthy subjects. It is valuable to initiate clinical trials to see if this treatment improves symptoms in patients with orthostatic hypotension.