Therapeutic effect of eye acupuncture on branch retinal vein occlusion in rabbits

Objective To study therapeutic effect of eye acupuncture treatment on branch retinal vein occlusion(BRVO)and its mechanism in rabbits.Methods Photochemical method was used to establish BRVO model in rabbits.Fifty rabbits were randomly divided equally into a healthy control group, a model group, eye acupuncture group, traditional Chinese medicine group, and the eye acupuncture combined with traditional Chinese medicine group and the rabbits were treated differently for 14 consecutive days.Laser speckle imaging(LSI)was adopted to measure the diameter of target blood vessels and the blood flow of tissue;pathology and detection of adenosine diphosphate(ADP)-induced platelet aggregation rate were determined.Results The average retinal vessel diameter(mm)for model, Chinese medicine, acupuncture, and acupuncture plus traditional Chinese medicine group were 0.133±0.007, 0.105±0.008, 0.105±0.008, and 0.102±0.002, respectively, with a statistically significant difference among the groups(P<0.01);the blood flow per unit area(PU)of four groups were 221±33.6, 401±44.6, 365±55.1, and 489±46.7, respectively, also with a statistically significant difference among the groups(P<0.01)and significantly higher blood flow was observed in the rabbits with eye acupuncture plus traditional Chinese medicine group(P<0.05).The ADP-induced platelet aggregation rate of the four groups were 59.72±8.36, 46.17±5.84, 42.38±4.16, and 42.01±6.09, with statistically significant difference among the groups(P<0.05).Conclusion Eye acupuncture can improve the microcirculation of BRVO in rabbit, especially combined with traditional Chinese medicine.