Thermographic Evidence for the Effectiveness of Acupuncture in Equine Neuromuscular Disease

Abstract

Thermographic scanning provides an objective method of detecting sympathetic-autonomic status of vasomotor tone in the horse by imaging thermal gradients. Through observing persistent abnormal sympathetic nervous tone causing hypothermic or hyperthermic regions the clinician is able to diagnose neuromuscular disease - a common but often unrecognised cause of chronic pain and performance problems in horses. Thermography studies at the Equine Veterinary Clinic in Guildford demonstrate that acupuncture often corrects abnormal vasomotor tone within a half to three and a half hours of needling, usually resolving vasoconstriction affecting large thermatomes. Thermal imaging can provide objective, measurable evidence of the ability of acupuncture to restore normal homoeostasis in the autonomic regulation of vasomotor tone and suggests that it may simultaneously relieve associated sensorimotor disease.