Trial reportJournal of translational medicine2014
Electroacupuncture stimulation at sub-specific acupoint and non-acupoint induced distinct brain glucose metabolism change in migraineurs: a PET-CT study.
Trial report in Journal of translational medicine, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 44 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled 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.
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.
Who cites it
44 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 56 citations in OpenAlex.
- Identifying robust neural signatures of acupuncture modulation in healthy brains: a multimodal meta-analysis mapping core network.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Pooled it
- Acupuncture for migraine: a literature review of neuroimaging studies.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Pooled it
- Imaging the brain and vascular reactions to headache treatments: a systematic review.The journal of headache and pain · 2023Pooled it
- Revealing the Neural Mechanism Underlying the Effects of Acupuncture on Migraine: A Systematic Review.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2021Pooled it
- Acupuncture for Chronic Pain: Update of an Individual Patient Data Meta-Analysis.The journal of pain · 2018Pooled it
- Acupuncture for neuropathic pain in adults.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2017Pooled it
- Sham Electroacupuncture Methods in Randomized Controlled Trials.Scientific reports · 2017Pooled it
- Effects of electroacupuncture on the incidence of postoperative supraventricular arrhythmia and sleep quality in patients undergoing thoracoscopic surgery: a randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Trial
- Short-term effect of electroacupuncture on rehabilitation after arthroscopic triangular fibrocartilage complex repair: a randomised study.Journal of orthopaedic surgery and research · 2021Trial
- Acupuncture as prophylaxis for chronic migraine: a protocol for a single-blinded, double-dummy randomised controlled trial.BMJ open · 2018Trial
- Acupuncture modulates the abnormal brainstem activity in migraine without aura patients.NeuroImage. Clinical · 2017Trial
- Mechanism of periocular acupuncture in alleviating dry eye neuropathic pain via regulation of the "periocular acupoint-trigeminal ganglion-ventral posteromedial thalamic nucleus" pathway.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- Electroacupuncture Improves Microglial Polarization Induced-Inflammation by Regulating the TGF-β/Smad-3 Signaling Pathway in Ischemic Stroke Mice.CNS neuroscience & therapeutics · 2025Article
- The relationship between abnormal glucose metabolism and chronic pain.Cell & bioscience · 2025Review
- Potential neural mechanisms of acupuncture therapy on migraine: a systematic review and activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis update.Quantitative imaging in medicine and surgery · 2025Article
- When sng meets acupuncture -- a paradigm-shift biomarker for translational research.Journal of traditional and complementary medicine · 2025Review
- Global trends and hotspots in research on acupuncture for neurodegenerative diseases over the last decade: a bibliometric and visualization analysis.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2024Review
- Management of auricular transcutaneous neuromodulation and electro-acupuncture of the vagus nerve for chronic migraine: a systematic review.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2023Review
- Bibliometric Analysis of 100 Most Highly Cited Publications on Acupuncture for Migraine.Journal of pain research · 2023Article
- Alteration in Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Signal Complexity Across Multiple Time Scales in Patients With Migraine Without Aura.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAcupuncture has analgesic effect to most pain conditions. Many neuroimaging studies were conducted to explore acupoint specificity in pain and other condition, but till now there is still discrepancy. Based on our previous finding, this study investigated the brain metabolism changes of acupuncture analgesia induced by sub-specific acupoint and non-acupoint stimulation.
methods30 migraineurs were included and randomly assigned to 3 groups: Acupuncture Group (AG), Sham Acupuncture Group (SAG) and Migraine Group (MG). In AG, a combination sub-specific points of Shaoyang meridians, Luxi (TE19), San Yangluo (TE8), and Xi Yangguan (GB33) has been stimulated with electroacupuncture, while non-acupoints for SAG were used and MG received no treatment. Positron emission tomography with computed tomography (PET-CT) was used to identify differences in brain glucose metabolism between groups.
resultsIn the AG, brain glucose metabolism increase compared with the MG was observed in the middle frontal gyrus, postcentral gyrus, the precuneus, parahippocampus, cerebellum and middle cingulate cortex (MCC), and decrease were observed in the left hemisphere of Middle Temporal Cortex (MTC).In the SAG, compared with MG, glucose metabolism increased in the poster cingulate cortex (PCC), insula, inferior temporal gyrus, MTC, superior temporal gyrus, postcentral gyrus, fusiform, inferior parietal lobe, superior parietal lobe, supramarginal gyrus, middle occipital lobe, angular and precuneus; while, decreased in cerebellum, parahippocampus.
conclusionsAcupuncture stimulation at both sub-specific acupoint and non-acupoint yields ameliorating effect to migraine pain, but with evidently differed central mechanism as measured by PET-CT. The pattern of brain glucose metabolism change in acupoint is pertinent and targeted, while in non-acupoint that was disordered and randomized. These finding may provide new perspectives into the validation of acupoint specificity, optimizing acupuncture analgesia and revealing central mechanism of acupuncture analgesia by neuroimaging measurement.
trial registrationThis trial was registered in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, with registration no. ChiCTR-TRC-11001813.
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Registered trials
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.