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Biomedical subjects

G P Lu

Publications and source records attributed to G P Lu.

15 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Acupuncture and clinical hypnosis for facial and head and neck pain: a single crossover comparison.

Despite their long histories, acupuncture and hypnosis have only recently been acknowledged as valuable by the medical establishment in the U.S. Few studies have used rigorous prospective measurement to evaluate the individual or relative merits of hypnosis and acupuncture in specific clinical settings. In this study, 25 patients with various head and neck pain were studied. Each had an initial assessment of their pain, as well as of their attitudes and expectations. All patients received acupuncture, followed by a reassessment of their pain. After a washout period they received another assessment of pain before and after hypnosis therapy. Preferences for therapy were sought following the hypnotic intervention. Both acupuncture and hypnosis were effective at relieving pain under these conditions. The average relief in pain reported was 4.2 units on a ten point scale, with hypnosis reducing pain by a mean of 4.8 units, compared to 3.7 for acupuncture (p = 0.26). Patient characteristics appeared to impact the effectiveness of treatment: patients with acute pain benefited most from acupuncture treatment, whereas patients with psychogenic pain were more likely to benefit from hypnosis. Patients with chronic pain had more variation in their results. Patients who received healing suggestions from a tape during a hypnotic trance benefited more than those who received no such suggestion, and acupuncture patients who were needle phobic benefited less than those who were not fearful of needles. This study demonstrates the benefits of well designed studies of the effectiveness of these alternative modalities. More work is needed to help practitioners identify which patients are most likely to benefit from these complementary therapies.

Acupuncture Therapy↗
PubMed1999

Clinical management of needle-phobia patients requiring acupuncture therapy.

Both acupuncture and hypnosis have their distinct applications in the health profession, but combining acupuncture therapy with hypnosis has rarely been done for the purpose of therapeutic treatment, perhaps because few clinicians have proper training in both disciplines. For needle phobic patients, acupuncture treatment can be a dreadful experience, as multiple needles are usually used. It is stressful for both clinicians and patients when the patients are put in an extremely apprehensive state. Our research for combining both acupuncture and hypnosis has revealed that synergy does exist in both, and that hypnosis does augment the effect of acupuncture, resulting in better treatment outcomes. Since many acupuncture patients who are needle phobic do not return for further treatment even though acupuncture has rendered good therapeutic results for them, stress reduction with hypnosis is, therefore, a welcome complimentary adjunct that would enable them to return for further needed acupuncture treatment if and when the factor of fear of the needle is removed.

Acupuncture Therapy↗
PubMed1996

Hypnosis and pharmacological sedation for medically compromised patients.

Sedating medically compromised patients (i.e., geriatric patients, patients with cardiac, kidney, or liver diseases, and those with other severe systemic conditions) for dental procedures can increase the risk of adverse events for this group of patients and can also increase the risk of liability for the clinician. The authors treated 17 apprehensive dental patients with a combination technique using hypnosis and sedative drugs. The use of hypnosis reduced the amount of sedative agent required and alleviated patient anxiety. The results indicate that hypnosis effectively allows for a reduction in the sedative dosage and provides successful and comfortable dental treatment.

Aged↗
PubMed1995

Augmenting sedation with hypnosis in drug-dependent patients.

The successful use of conscious sedation in patients physically dependent on centrally acting drugs is problematic for the dental anesthesiologist because of the concomitant development of tolerance to standard sedative agents. Dosage requirements necessary to adequately sedate these patients are often higher than recommended and carry an increased risk of drug overdose. The following report summarizes our experience with 18 drug-dependent patients in whom hypnosis was employed in conjunction with a standard sedation regimen. Attempts to complete various dental procedures while employing sedation alone on these patients had previously failed. All patients exhibited highly fearful or phobic behavior toward dental treatment as assessed by the Corah Dental Anxiety Scale. If an intravenous sedative regimen (midazolam or diazepam plus methohexital) was employed, hypnotic induction preceded the administration of the sedative drugs. If an intramuscular sedative regimen was employed (meperidine plus promethazine), the hypnotic induction took place after drug administration. With the combined hypno-sedative approach, treatment outcomes were judged to be good or excellent in 11 of 18 patients. Interestingly, in five of seven patients for whom the treatment outcome was rated poor or fair, the possibility of tolerance or cross-tolerance existed between a drug being abused and the sedative regimen. In contrast, this possibility existed in only 1 of 11 patients with good or excellent treatment outcomes. We conclude that hypnosis can augment the effects of sedation in this patient population. However, it is also important to choose a sedative regimen where tolerance is unlikely to exist.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Safety, efficacy, and acceptance of intramuscular sedation: assessment of 900 dental cases.

Intramuscular (IM) sedation techniques remain the least used by clinicians, possibly because of their limited exposure in the undergraduate and graduate dental curricula. To assess the safety and efficacy of these techniques, the authors conducted a retrospective study of 900 dental cases. A total of 308 patients received ketamine, 356 received a meperidine/promethazine combination, and 236 received midazolam. Results revealed a high safety record, efficacy, and good evaluations from clinicians and patients, in addition to some advantages over other sedation techniques.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

Synthesis of arachidonic acid metabolites by Syrian hamster platelets and peritoneal cells.

In this study, the metabolism of arachidonic acid by hamster platelets and peritoneal macrophages was assessed. Peritoneal macrophages stimulated in vitro with the calcium ionophore A23187 or stimulated in vivo by intraperitoneal injections of opsonized zymosan produced prostaglandin E2, thromboxane B2 (TxB2) and 6-keto-prostaglandin F1 alpha, as determined by radioimmunoassays. Leukotriene B4 (LTB4), and 11- and 15-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acids (HETE), which were identified by reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with diode array detection, were produced by peritoneal cells stimulated in vitro with A23187 but were not found in the peritoneal exudate following in vivo stimulation with opsonized zymosan. Synthesis of 11- and 15-HETE, but not LTB4, was inhibited by 1 microM indomethacin but not by 10 microM nordihydroguaiaretic acid, which did inhibit LTB4 synthesis. Washed hamster platelets were prepared and shown to synthesize TxB2, 12-HETE and 12-hydroxyheptadecatrienoic acid following stimulation with thrombin. This paper is the first to report on eicosanoid metabolism in tissues related to atherosclerosis, thrombosis and inflammation in hamsters.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

Hypoglycemia enhances bupivacaine-induced cardiotoxicity in the rat.

The effect of blood glucose concentration on bupivacaine-induced cardiotoxicity was investigated in normoglycemic and hypoglycemic adult rats and compared to that of equipotent doses of lidocaine. The anesthetic agents were injected intraperitoneally into tracheostomized animals anesthetized with ketamine. ECG and direct blood pressure measurements were recorded continuously. Femoral arterial blood was used for determinations of glucose level, potassium concentration and base deficit values. Blood was drawn from the heart at the time of death for local anesthetic levels. In hypoglycemic animals, bupivacaine rapidly produced serious dysrhythmias leading to asystole. In normoglycemic rats, only ST-segment changes followed bupivacaine injection and death ensued from hypoxemia secondary to respiratory failure. With lidocaine, both hypoglycemic and normoglycemic rats died of hypoxemia following respiratory paralysis without antecedent dysrhythmias. Thus, hypoglycemia enhanced the cardiac effects of bupivacaine but not those of lidocaine.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1992

Dependence on dietary cholesterol for n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid-induced changes in plasma cholesterol in the Syrian hamster.

Male Syrian hamsters consumed diets containing incremental increases in dietary n-3 fatty acids from fish oil with either low (0.015% w/w) or moderate (0.1% w/w) dietary cholesterol content. Animals consuming diets containing moderate cholesterol, but not animals consuming diets containing low cholesterol, had increased plasma very low (VLDL)- and low density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol levels with increasing fish oil consumption. The plasma concentration of high density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol decreased by 43 and 32% with the consumption of the highest fish oil diets in the low and moderate dietary cholesterol groups, respectively. Hepatic LDL-receptor binding activity did not change with the consumption of low cholesterol diets, but gradually decreased with fish oil consumption in animals consuming the moderate cholesterol diets. Hepatic LDL-receptor binding and plasma LDL-cholesterol levels of the different dietary fish oil groups were highly correlated (r = -0.91). Fish oil consumption also caused an increase in hepatic free cholesterol but a decreased cholesteryl ester content. Therefore, in the Syrian hamster, the consumption of n-3 fatty acids increases LDL-cholesterol levels which can be partially explained by decreased hepatic LDL-receptor binding and this response to dietary n-3 fatty acids is dependent on the dietary cholesterol content. However, the effects of dietary n-3 fatty acids on HDL-cholesterol are independent of dietary cholesterol content.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Acupuncture/acupressure to treat gagging dental patients: a clinical study of anti-gagging effects.

Noninvasive methods advocated by some clinicians are not very successful in dealing with patient gagging, while sedation approaches run the risk of the patient aspirating foreign bodies. The P-6 Neikuan acupuncture point, located on the wrist, has been used in the Far East for thousands of years for its anti-nausea and anti-anxiety properties. In the West, it is the acupuncture point most studied. Only recently has interest been shown in the P-6 point for its possible anti-gagging effect. The anti-gagging effect of P-6 stimulation is documented in this article. The P-6 point has remarkable anti-gagging effects if stimulation is applied correctly. Clinicians may apply thumb pressure at the P-6 point to achieve some effect, although this is not as effective as acupuncture. Nevertheless, a substantial percentage of gagging patients would be able to go through dental procedures without gagging when the P-6 point is stimulated.

Acupressure↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Sodium nitroprusside (SNP) hypotension: intracranial pressure (ICP) and hemodynamics in pial arteriole in the rat.

A detailed description is made of an acute closed cranial window method. The method is used for the study of cerebral pial microcirculation by intravital microscopy in the rat. Using these methods and techniques, the effects of systemic hypotension by SNP, i.v., on pial microvessel hemodynamics and on ICP were simultaneously measured and characterized under normophysiological conditions. The pH, PO2, PCO2 and temperature of the artificial cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the closed cranial window, intermittently measured, remained relatively constant, 30 to 60 min following the period of stabilization of the preparation. The infusion of SNP (6.2-35.0 micrograms/kg/min, 0.02% sol., i.v.) significantly decreased BP (52.1 +/- 13.4 mm Hg, mean +/- SD). From measurement of microvessels internal diameter (I. D.) and microhemodynamics, significant increases in pial arteriolar I.D. (from 35.4 +/- 10.1, microns, to 47.1 +/- 5.7, microns, mean and S.D., 33.0%) and estimated bulk flow (51.2%), occurred during the hypotension. The changes in hemodynamic parameter were predominantly in the arteriolar system. Only minimal changes in the venular diameter occurred during the SNP hypotension. The observed moderate (22.0%) increase in ICP during SNP hypotension in pentobarbital anesthetized rat correlates well with the microhemodynamic changes of the cerebral microcirculatory system.

Animals↗