[Objective] The effect of acupuncture on gastric emptying was evaluated with a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique. Using MRI, gastric emptying can be quantitatively evaluated without radiation exposure or uncomfortable gastric intubation.
[Method] Either an acupuncture patch or a fake patch was applied to the bilateral ST36 (Zusanri, Ashi no sanri) of eight healthy volunteers (5 males, 3 females, age 24.6 ± 2.5) 2 hours before the MRI measurement in a randomized manner. After taking MRI of the upper abdomen for control, each subject ingested tap water (4 ml/kg BW) in the MRI chamber. The volume of gastric content was calculated as the sum of the gastric area of MRI coronal slices. MRI was done every 10 min up to 1 hour, and the change in gastric volume was plotted.
[Result] Although it is ordinarily recommended to avoid bringing metal apparatus into the MRI chamber, there was no recognized damage to the subject including local burn and inflammation on the skin around the needle.
In our experiment, two hours with an acupuncture patch on ST36 made no significant change on gastric emptying compared to the fake patch application.
[Discussion]
The experiment showed that MRI can be used to evaluate effects of acupuncture on postprandial gastric emptying.