Low frequency oscillation(LFO) study of local microcirculation during acupuncture treatment of osteoarthritis in rats

Abstract

Blood flow, especially microcirculation is very important indicator of body health because it provides cells with nutrients and oxygen. Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM) claims when qi(氣) flows well throughout our body, our body is healthy. Because of these characteristics, we consider that the microcirculation can serve as a surrogate marker for qi(氣). Diffuse Speckle Contrast Analysis(DSCA) is a technology that has been in the spotlight for non-invasively measuring blood flow[1]. Recently, there is a trial to graft mutimode fiber onto DSCA[2]. we borrow this idea. we have succeeded in increasing data processing speed and increasing the number of channels at our in-house DSCA system. We present correlation between low frequency oscillation(LFO) of microcirculation and osteoarthritis treatment effect following to acupoint stimulation. We conducted experiments using rats. The rats were divided into three groups in total: a normal group, an induced group, and a treatment group. The induction group and treatment group received an MIA injection in their left knees to cause inflammation. The treatment group is divided into groups treated with laser acupuncture and patch-type micro-needles. The treatment areas are Yangneungcheon(陽陵泉,양릉천,GB34) and Xuanzhong(懸鍾,현종,GB39). Acupuncture treatment was performed for 4 weeks, and BFI was measured a total of 4 times. For the measurement conditions of MMF-DSCA, the exposure time was set to 2ms, and a 7-channel detector was created using fan-out bundle fiber. 4 out of 7 channels were used. The laser wavelength used as the source is 785nm.