OBJECTIVE: To determine differences in cerebral activity evoked by acupuncture and conventional stroke treatment, and identify the treatment targets.METHODS: In total, 21 patients were randomly divided into two groups. Group A(11 patients) received both acupuncture and conventional treatment, while group B(10 patients) received conventional treatment only. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging(f MRI) was performed on each participant before and after treatment. Regional homogeneity analysis was performed to investigate the potential mechanism of acupuncture treatment by comparing differences in cerebral activity between treatments.RESULTS: Group A showed higher Re Ho in the frontal lobe(BA6, BA46), supra-marginal gyrus(BA40),middle temporal gyrus(BA21), cerebellum, and insula. Group B showed higher Re Ho in the frontal lobe(BA6) and parietal lobe(BA3, BA7).CONCLUSION: Acupuncture and conventional treatment triggered relatively different clinical efficacy and brain responses. Acupuncture treatment more significantly improved the symptoms of stroke patients. More marked changes in sensory,emotional, and motor areas(including the frontal lobe, middle temporal gyrus, cerebellum, and insula) might reflect the specific acupuncture mechanism.

Our previous study used regional homogeneity analysis and found that activity in some brain areas of patients with ischemic stroke changed significantly. In the current study, we examined structural changes in these brain regions by taking structural magnetic resonance imaging scans of 11 ischemic stroke patients and 15 healthy participants, and analyzing the data using voxel-based morphometry. Compared with healthy participants, patients exhibited higher gray matter density in the left inferior occipital gyrus and right anterior white matter tract. In contrast, gray matter density in the right cerebellum, left precentral gyrus, right middle frontal gyrus, and left middle temporal gyrus was less in ischemic stroke patients. The changes of gray matter density in the middle frontal gyrus were negatively associated with the clinical rating scales of the Fugl-Meyer Motor Assessment (r = -0.609, P = 0.047) and the left middle temporal gyrus was negatively correlated with the clinical rating scales of the nervous functional deficiency scale (r = -0.737, P = 0.010). Our findings can objectively identify the functional abnormality in some brain regions of ischemic stroke patients.