brain-modulated effects of auricular acupressure on the regulation of autonomic function in healthy volunteersbrain-modulated耳部按摩对自主调节功能的影响在健康志愿者.pdfVIP

Hindawi Publishing Corporation Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Volume 2012, Article ID 714391, 8 pages doi:10.1155/2012/714391 Research Article Brain-Modulated Effects of Auricular Acupressure on the Regulation of Autonomic Function in Healthy Volunteers Xin-Yan Gao,1, 2 Lu Wang,1 Ingrid Gaischek,1 Yvonne Michenthaler,1 Bing Zhu,2 and Gerhard Litscher1 1 TCM Research Center Graz and Research Unit of Biomedical Engineering in Anesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine, Medical University of Graz, Auenbruggerplatz 29, 8036 Graz, Austria 2 Department of Physiology, Institute of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100700, China Correspondence should be addressed to Gerhard Litscher, gerhard.litscher@medunigraz.at Received 19 May 2011; Accepted 11 June 2011 Academic Editor: Rui Chen Copyright © 2012 Xin-Yan Gao et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Auricular acupuncture has been described in ancient China as well as Egypt, Greece, and Rome. At the end of the 1950s, ear acupuncture was further developed by the French physician Dr. Paul Nogier. The goal of this study was to develop a new system for ear acupressure (vibration stimulation) and to perform pilot investigations on the possible acute effects of vibration and manual ear acupressure on heart rate (HR), heart rate variability (HRV), pulse wave velocity (PWV), and the augmentation index (AIx) using new noninvasive recording methods. Investigations were performed in 14 healthy volunteers (mean age ± SD: 26.3±4.3 years; 9 females, 5 males) before, during, and after ac