| Title | Bioengineering assessment of acupuncture, part 7: heart rate variability. | ||
| Author | Litscher, Gerhard | ||
| Journal | Crit Rev Biomed Eng | Publication Year/Month | 2007 |
| PMID | 18197794 | PMCID | -N/A- |
| Affiliation | 1.Research Unit of Biomedical Engineering in Anesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM Research Center), Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria. gerhard.litscher@medunigraz.at. | ||
In the seventh part of this review article, preliminary research on the topic of acupuncture and heart rate variability is described. Heart rate variability (HRV) refers to the beat-to-beat alterations in heart rate. Under resting conditions, the electrocardiograms of healthy people exhibit periodic variations in the percentage change in sequential chamber complexes (RR-intervals). The parameter HRV is modulated by the blood-pressure control-system, influences from the hypothalamus, and, in particular, the vagal cardiovascular center in the lower brainstem. This review article contains a short summary of scientific literature on HRV and acupuncture.