Local Microcirculation Level Changes During Laser Acupuncture Treatment of Rats With Osteoarthritis

Abstract

This study evaluates whether a deep-tissue microcirculation measurement can serve as an indicator of laser acupuncture treatment efficacy in an osteoarthritis (OA) animal model. Four groups of rats (normal, OA, OA10, and OA20, n = 6 each) were prepared where OA10 and OA20 mean treated groups with different light doses. Blood flow index (BFI) was measured at four time points (T0–T3) near acupoints GB34 and GB39 using a custom-made diffuse speckle contrast analysis (DSCA) system. BFI measurement showed an increase after OA induction and it remained elevated, whereas treatment groups exhibited a decrease in BFI. Spectral analysis revealed meaningful changes in the myogenic wave band, and a support vector machine classification demonstrated that incorporating BFI at T1 along with anatomical features significantly improved group separation accuracy, indicating a strong correlation between acute inflammatory response and anatomical indices.