Open AccessPhotoacoustic imaging of microenvironmental changes in facial cupping therapy
Author(s) -
Yingying Zhou,
Fei Cao,
Huanhao Li,
Xiao Huang,
Dongshan Wei,
Lidai Wang,
Puxiang Lai
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
biomedical optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.362
H-Index - 86
ISSN - 2156-7085
DOI - 10.1364/boe.387985
Subject(s) - cupping therapy , medicine , blood pressure , photoacoustic imaging in biomedicine , artery , biomedical engineering , surgery , pathology , optics , physics , alternative medicine , acupuncture
As a traditional medicine practice, cupping therapy has been widely used to relieve symptoms like fatigue, tension, and muscle pain. During the therapy, negative pressure is applied to the skin for a while with an intention to enhance blood circulation or induce micro-bleeding. The therapeutic effect, however, is not clear due to the lack of direct quantification. Aiming at a quantitative assessment of the treatment effect, we explore optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy (OR-PAM) in monitoring the structural and functional changes after cupping. We find that, after 5-minutes of ∼ 20 kPa negative pressure cupping, more capillaries appear in the focus, and micro-blooding is observed from the capillaries. We quantify the images and find the blood vessel density is increased by 64%, and the total hemoglobin concentration in both the veins and the arteries exhibits 62% and 40% elevation, respectively. Oxygen saturation in the vein and artery decreased by 17% and 3% right after cupping, respectively. After two hours of recovery, the three blood-related parameters return to their original levels, indicating that the effects in the tissue last only a short period after cupping at the given pressure and time duration. Note that no significant cupping marks are induced with the treatment parameters in this study. This work proposes OR-PAM to quantitatively monitor and evaluate the effect of cupping therapy from the perspective of imaging. The method is also useful for accurate control of the therapeutic outcome.