Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether percutaneous interferential current stimulation on thoracic sympathetic ganglia with amplitude modulated frequency (AMF) $90\~100$ bps and subthreshold of muscle contraction for 10 minutes on peripheral blood flow velocity in healthy subjects. Thirty-seven healthy volunteers were assigned randomly into an experimental group (n=25) and a control group (n=12). the experimental group received interferential current stimulation with subthreshold of the muscle contraction of current at AMF $90\~100$ bps on $1st\~5th$ thoracic sympathetic ganglial region for 10 minutes. The control group received same handling and electode placement, but no current was applied. Using a Doppler blood flow meter, the radial arterial blood flow velocities and the pulse raters were determined for two-way analysis of variance for repeated measures on time and group. There were no significant difference between the two groups with respect to the changes in arterial blood flow velocity and pulse rate over the four measurement times. Interferential current stimulation did not change in mean blood flow velocity and pulse rate. We conclude that interferential current stimulation on the thoracic sympathetic ganglia, as used in this study, did not dilate peripheral artery. This results suggests that interferential current stimulation dose not alter the activtiy of sympathetic nerve.

Keywords

• interferential current;
• electrical stimulation;
• blood flow;
• sympathetic activity