Evidence map›Paper›PMID 25354241›Full record

Trial reportJournal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.)2015

Local changes in microcirculation and the analgesic effects of acupuncture: a laser Doppler perfusion imaging study.

Seorim Min, Hyangsook Lee, Song-Yi Kim, Ji-Yeun Park, Younbyoung Chae, Hyejung Lee, Hi-Joon Park

Open access · greenAbstract readRandomized Controlled Trial
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Trial report in Journal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.), 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
33citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
4.4field-weighted citation impact, top 7% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

33 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 57 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Acupuncture for neonatal abstinence syndrome in newborn infants.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2025
    Pooled it
  2. Trial
  3. Trial
  4. Article
  5. Review
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Review
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Seorim Min1 Studies of Translational Acupuncture Research, Acupuncture and Meridian Science Research Center, Kyung Hee University , Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Hyangsook Lee
Song-Yi Kim
Ji-Yeun Park
Younbyoung Chae
Hyejung Lee
Hi-Joon Park
Kyung Hee University · KRKyung Hee University Medical Center · KR

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectivesAlthough the local response induced by acupuncture manipulation has been considered to be among the important factors that induce the effects of acupuncture, this connection has not yet been properly studied with standardized tools. The aims of this study are to examine the local changes in microcirculation that occur at different manipulation intensities and explore any associations of these changes with the analgesic effects of acupuncture. PARTICIPANTS/

interventionsTwelve healthy volunteers received three acupuncture interventions (insertion only, a single manipulation, and repeated manipulations) at the right LI4 (Hegu or Hapgok) in random order. OUTCOME MEASURES: Skin blood perfusion was measured in a 100-mm(2) area ellipse centered on LI4 by using laser Doppler perfusion imaging (LDPI) before, during, and after acupuncture stimulation. Pressure pain thresholds (PPTs) were measured at ipsilateral areas, including acupoints ST25 (abdomen), LI5 (hand), LI10 (arm), and SP9 (leg).

resultsRepeated acupuncture manipulations enhanced microcirculatory perfusion compared with the insertion-only (p<0.01) and the single-manipulation (p<0.05) conditions. The repeated acupuncture manipulations significantly decreased the pressure pain at ST25 compared with the other groups (each p<0.05). Of note, Spearman correlation analysis revealed significant correlation between changes of local perfusion and PPTs (r=0.393; p=0.018).

conclusionsThese results suggested that repeated manipulation induced higher local microcirculatory changes that were correlated with the analgesic effects at the relevant sites. The findings suggest that a proper dose of acupuncture stimulation might be essential to elicit the acupuncture effects.

Indexed as

Acupuncture TherapyAdultHumansLaser-Doppler FlowmetryMaleMicrocirculationPain ThresholdRepublic of KoreaSkinYoung Adult

Identifiers

PMID25354241
PMCPMC4296745
OpenAlexW1570503469

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.