CHEN Yuanyuan, ZHAO Yanping, FANG Jiliang, QIAN Tianyi, 

HONG Yang, LIU Guiyong, ZHANG Guolei, ,WANG Jun, WANG 

Yin, LIU Yong, XU Kaibin, LI Xiaojiao

(1.Dept. of Radiology, 4. Dept. of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, Guang An Men Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100053, China; 2.Siemens Healthcare, MR Collaboration NE Asia, Beijing 100102, China; 3.Brain network research center，Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China,)

Abstract:  Objective:  To establish the methodology of combining the blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (Mega-Press H-MRS) for investigating the correlation between the deactivation in the medial prefrontal cortex evoked by acupuncture at LI4 (Point Hegu) acupoint and  the gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)  concentration ,and optimize the  experimental  technique  and  procedure  in  the  preliminary  experiment.  Methods:  Twenty healthy  adult  volunteers  were  enrolled.  During  fMRI-BOLD  scan,  each  subject  would  receive

acupuncture at right LI4 (Point Hegu) acupoint on the hand. The MR spectroscopy is based on the MEGA-PRESS sequence,it’s region was centered at the both sides of  medial prefrontal cortex （MPFC）, the task BOLD were in the block design, including three 30 seconds stimulations with 2 minutes’ interval. The MRS scanning was performed before and after BOLD. The quantitative values of the BOLD positive and negative activations (Pm) and ROI GABA concentrations were calculated after processing the images. Results:  20 subjects completed the BOLD scan, which met the  postprocessing requirements, 1 std deviation of GABA concentration higher than 15%, were not included  in  analysis.  For  BOLD,the  average  comprehensive  value  for  20  subjects  were calculated  as  positive  value （ 8  subjects,1.16±0.13 ）   and  negative  value （ 12  subjects, －1.32±0.16）;  the average amplitude between the post-  and pre-  acupuncture was（-2.76±6.23）nmol/L  for  negative  subjects,and(2.72±9.47)nmol/L  for  positive  subjects.  Conclusion:  In  this study,  we  established  a  multimodal-functional  (BOLD-fMRI  and  MRS)  method  for  the quantitative study of brain function. The success rate was acceptable, and the multimodal brain function changes  were  observed in  the  brain  region  during  acupuncture,  and  we could  get the quantitative  values.The  combined  BOLD  and  MRS  qualitative  method  was  feasible  for  test acupuncture response in the brain.

Key  Words:  Acupuncture;  Functional  magnetic  resonance  imaging;  Blood  oxygenation  level dependent; Magnetic  resonance  spectroscopy;  Medial  prefrontal  cortex  Deactivation;  Gammaaminobutyric acid.