Preliminary Experimental Study On Motor Function Rebuilding Of Hemiplegic Stroke Patients Using Acupuncture-Based Microelectronic Neural Bridge

Objectives:1. Screening and optimizing acupoint combinations which are used to rebuild wrist and hand function of hemiplegia patients’upper limb based on the method of acupuncture and microelectronic neural bridge combination.2. Observing whether patients’healthy side can trigger movements of patients’sick side by using acupuncture-based microelectronic neural bridge.Methods:1. Using Self-adhesive electrodes and multichannel stimulator Master 9 to screen the best points of Large Intestine Meridian of Hand-Yangming in 13 healthy volunteers. If the acupoints can trigger movements then changing the pulse width of stimulate signal and observing the difference of wrist’s movement and its affection to threshold current.2. Using small Self-adhesive electrode to find which acupoints can bend the fingers in 12 healthy volunteers. Change the amplitude of stimulate pulse, observing and recording the movement of controlled finger and the other four fingers, including volunteers’ feeling and so on. After that, the disposable acupuncture needles are used to detect the threshold voltage of finger flexion movements in 10 volunteers.3. Two hemiplegic patients are selected to do the experiment with MENB-Ⅱ-02 instrument, which is using patient’s healthy side to control patient’s sick side.Results:1. It is found that when acupoints of LI10 and LI9 are chosen, the movement of wrist extension is clear and obvious. The threshold voltage of LI9 is lower man LI10 and the data has a statistically significant difference(P<0.05).2. The five finger’s best acupoints combinations have also been found:thumb LU10 with LU5; forefinger LI4 with LI5 or LI7; middle finger PC3 with PC4; ring finger SJ3 with SJ5 or SJ6; little finger SI4 with SI7,the data has a statistically significant difference(P<0.05). It is found that all fingers’ average voltage is lower than 2 V, just the voltage of thumb and middle finger are higher, close to 2 V. The other fingers are all lower than 1.5 V.3. Clinical tests show that using acupoints to send input signals with MENB-Ⅱ-02 instrument can realize the purpose of using patients’healthy side to control patient’s sick side.Conclusion:1. Stimulating acupoints of LI 10 and LI9 can cause obvious movements of wrist.2. Stimulating acupoints of LU10 with LU5,LI4 with LI5 or LI7,PC3 with PC4,SJ3 with SJ5 or SJ6,SI4 with SI7 can cause clear and obvious finger flexion movements. Whether there are better acupoints needs further study.3. Acupuncture-based microelectronic neural bridge can realize the purpose of using patients’ healthy side to control patient’s sick side.