The Effect of Cranial Manipulation on the Traube-Hering-Mayer Oscillation as Measured by Laser-Doppler Flowmetry

Source
Alternative Therapies, Nov/Dec 2002, Vol. 8 No. 6
http://www.alternative-therapies.com/

Authors
Nicette Sergueff lectures throughout Europe on manual principles, diagnosis, and treatment, and maintains a private practice in Corbas, France. She is an assistant professor.

Kenneth E. Nelson is a professor, and Thomas Glonek is a research professor in the Department of Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine, Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine, Midwestern University, Downers Grove, Illinois.

Context
A correlation has been established between the Traube-Hering-Mayer oscillation in blood-flow velocity, measured by laser-Dopper-flowmetry, and the cranial rhythmic impulse.

Objective
To determine the effect of cranial manipulation on the Traube-Hering-Mayer oscillation.

Design
Of 23 participants, 13 received a sham treatment and 10 received cranial manipulation.

Setting
Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine Department, Midwestern University, Downers Grove, Illinois.

Participants
Healthy adult subjects of both sexes participated (N=23).

Intervention
A laser-Doppler flowmetry probe was place on the left earlobe of each subject to obtain a 5-min baseline blood flow velocity record. Cranial manipulation, consisting of equilibration of the global cranial motion patter and the craniocervical junction, was then applied for 10 to 20 minutes; the sham treatment was manipulation only.

Main Outcome Measure
Immediately following the procedures, a 5-min postreatment laser-Doppler recording was acquired. For each cranial treatment subject, the 4 major components of the blood-flow velocity record, the thermal (Mayer) signal, the baro (Traube-Hering) signal, the respiratory signal, and the cardiac signal, were analyzed, and the pretreatment and posttreatment data were compared.

Results
The 10 participants who received cranial treatment showed a thermal signal power decrease from 47.79 dB to 38.490 dB (P < .001) and the baro signal increased from 47.40 dB to 51.30 dB (P < .021), while the respiratory and cardiac signals did not change significantly (P > .05 for both).

Conclusion
Cranial manipulation affects the blood-flow velocity oscillation in its low-frequency Traube-Hering-Mayer components. Because these low-frequency oscillations are mediated through parasympathetic and sympathetic activity, it is concluded that cranial manipulation affects the autonomic nervous system.