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Received 17 February 2008; received in revised form 19 June 2008; accepted 6 July 2008
⁎ Corresponding author. Research Department, Logan College of Chiropractic, 1851 Schoettler Rd, Chesterfield, MO 63006, USA.
Tel.: +1 636 230 1920; fax: 636 207 2417.
E-mail address: john.zhang@logan.edu (J. Zhang).
school-wide e-mail notification or personal contact. All ments. The subjects were blinded for the real laser and
subjects came from the college's tri 1 and tri 2 students sham laser treatments.
who were under similar study environment. Students The treatment group received active laser treatment
were asked to come in for blood pressure screening. No to the LI 4 (Hegu) and LI 11 (Quchi). All subjects'
faculty members participated in the study. No special baseline data were collected before any treatments were
instructions were given to any individual on blood given. The second data collection was 45 days after
pressure and body weight controls. The sample size was treatment, and the third and final data collection was at
an estimate based on the d (effect size) of .50, α1 = .05 90 days of treatment. During the treatment period, each
(α2 = .10), and power of 0.75, which required a sample subject received 2 treatments per week for 12 weeks
size of 44 for the study. There were no interim analyses with at least 12 active or sham treatments. Subjects who
and preset stopping rules except in case of discomfort received less than 12 active or sham treatments were
occurring in the subjects. All study procedures were counted as dropouts.
approved by the institutional review board at a
chiropractic college and explained to each subject Instrumentation
before testing. All subjects had to sign a written
informed consent before their participation in the Blood pressure: A Biopac manual blood pressure
study. All data collection was conducted at the research monitor (Biopac, Santa Barbara, CA) was used in the
department of a chiropractic college. blood pressure measurements. Researchers were
trained in the correct blood pressure measurement
Inclusion criteria technique and had at least 2 years of experience in
blood pressure research. Blood pressure measurements
Men and women with mild hypertension (systolic were taken at sitting position after a 5-minute rest. The
blood pressure, 160-125 mm Hg; diastolic blood manual sphygmomanometer cuff was placed on the left
pressure, 110-81 mm Hg) and naive to low-level laser arm at the heart level. The blood pressure reading was
therapy were recruited. taken twice during data collection, and the average was
used for data analysis.
Body weight was taken with a 6-way weight scale
Exclusion criteria
made by Chirotron, Inc (Biocom, Seattle, WA).
Heart rate variability: Biocom's Active ECG Scanner
Individuals with heart, kidney, or thyroid disorders; was used in the HRV data collection with digital signal
diabetes; chronic disease or illness; neurologic dis- processing software. The heart scanner records an
eases; and skin or bleeding disorders, and those electrocardiograph (ECG) signal, computing the instan-
currently taking drugs or medications were not taneous changes of HRV after each recording session.
recruited in the study. A health history questionnaire The scanner connects to the subjects through 3 small
was used to screen subjects. electrodes that attach to the left arm, right arm, and left
leg. A baseline HRV was recorded before treatment was
Study design given. The HRV recording was taken in the sitting
position for 5 minutes for all subjects. No additional gels
This study was a randomized controlled study with were needed for the electrodes. Special care was given
subjects divided into control and experimental groups. to clean the skin surface to improve skin conductance.
A random table was used for the randomization. A Data cleaning techniques were used to remove noise in
series of random numbers was selected from the the ECG signals to improve the quality of HRV
random table (from the first line, left to right) to assign measurements. This includes checking each ECG
each subject based on odd or even number. An odd tracing to make sure that accurate ECG R-R intervals
number assigned a subject into the treatment group, and are recorded for HRVanalysis. The HRV waveform was
an even number assigned a subject into the control represented by R-R interval tachogram. The spectral
group. The control group was given a sham low-level analysis of this signal was obtained from a successive
laser therapy treatment with no power output to the discrete series of R-R duration values taken from the
laser during the “treatment.” The experimental group ECG signal sampled at 256 Hz and transformed by the
received an activated laser during treatment. Both fast Fourier technique. The power spectrum was divided
groups had identical instructions, interactions with into 3 major frequency ranges: very low frequency at
research team members, and blood pressure measure- 0.01 to 0.08 Hz, low frequency at 0.08 to 0.15 Hz, and
Laser acupoint treatment 137
Fig 1. Blood pressure in the control group. White bar the study. Forty-five subjects completed the study, and
is systolic blood pressure, and dark bar is diastolic
2 subjects dropped out of the study. Most subjects
blood pressure.
completed the study within a 2-month period for
treatment twice a week up to 12 visits. The average age
high frequency at 0.15 to 0.5 Hz. The integral of the of the subjects was 25 ± 5 years old. The youngest
power spectrum within each region was calculated. subject was 20 years old, and the oldest was 56 years
The Insight 40 infrared laser (USA Laser, Rich- old. The study population consisted of 45 students
mond, VA): The study used 100% modulation with a currently enrolled in a chiropractic college.
frequency of 10 kHz. The energy output of the After the 12 laser treatment sessions, both the
treatment was 16 J for a total of 8 minutes. Each systolic and diastolic blood pressures decreased
acupoint received 4 minutes of treatment. significantly (Figs 1 and 2). The mean systolic blood
pressure was 129.6 ± 14.7 mm Hg before the treatment
Data treatment and analysis started and was reduced to 122.9 ± 15.2 mm Hg (P b
.001) after 45 days of treatment and to 122.6 ±
One-way repeated-measures analysis of variance
17.2 mm Hg at the end of the 3-month treatment (P b
was used to assess the differences of blood pressure,
.05). The mean diastolic blood pressure was 85.6 ±
body weight, and HRV changes before and after taking
8.0 mm Hg before treatment started and was also
the supplement for 90 days. Significance was deter-
reduced to 79.9 ± 8.9 mm Hg (P b .001) the first time it
mined at P less than or equal to .05. SigmaStat 3.5
was measured and to 77.7 ± 8.7 mm Hg (P b .001)
statistical software (SigmaStat, Point Richmond, CA)
(Tables 1 and 2) at the end of the 3-month laser
was used for the data analysis.
treatment period. The body weight decreased in the
experiment group, but it did not reach a statistically
Results significant level (Figs 3 and 4). The HRV did not show
any significant changes.
A total of 120 students were screened for higher
blood pressure, and 47 subjects (31 male) qualified for
Discussion