It has been reported thap ECG of the patients of coronary heart disease with PSM got marked Improvement when Neiguan(PC6)was punctured

in comparison with the patients without propagated sensation along meridians(PSM).The difference between the two was significant.However some others reported that the acupuncture effects between the two had no striking difference.Authors detected that during acupuncture of Neiguan the change of ECG of the patients showed dynamic character and some patients without PSM were also marked as the duration of acupuncture was prolonged.For this reason

this paper was aimed to observe whethe any difference appeared in the development of acupu- ncture effects between the patients with and without PSM. One hundred and seventy cases of patients with coronary heart disease were observed

of which 86 were male and 84 female

aged 35-83 years.Varying de- gree of PSM appeared in 80 of them

but not in the remaining 90.ECG was recorded with polygraph(model SJ-42)before acupuncture.Then the Neiguan acupoint of the left forearm was punctured by slow twisting for 5 minutes and the feature of PSM was carefully observed.Another recording of ECG was ta- ken after retaining needle for 10 minutes:Retaining needle lasted for 30 minutes in a part of the patients and the needle was manipulated every 16 minules in order to keep the needling sensation.The signals of ECG were added 10 times by addscope(model ATAC-250)

the voltage of ST segment and T wave of ECG were measured and processed statistically.ECG of a part of the patients were recorded continuously in a period of 90 minutes.The results of every 15 minutes were processed and compared. The results of 254 times of obervation showed that the difference in the degree of improvement of ST segment and T wave of ECG was significant(P< 0.05)between the patients with and without PSM after acupuncturing Neiguan for 15 minutes.However

after acupuncturing for 30 minutes

the ST segme- nt and T wave of ECG were further improved in both groups.The change of ECG in the patients without PSM was also remarkable

and thus

the difference between the two groups was no longer significant(P>0.05).From the results of acupuncture of Neiguan for 60 minutes it could be found that the acupunctu- re effect of the patients with PSM was better than that of without PSM

and the appearance of the effect was also earlier in the former

in whom the acu- puncture effect had already become very marked in the initial 15 minutes after acupuncture.The above results indicated that PSM was able to promote the regulation of the functional activities of the visceral organs durnig acupuncture.