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This randomised controlled trial investigated whether electroacupuncture applied during percutaneous coronary intervention — a procedure used to open blocked heart arteries — could reduce chest pain and protect heart muscle from procedural injury. One hundred and twenty patients with angina pectoris were randomly assigned to receive either real electroacupuncture or a sham (inactive) version during their procedure. The real electroacupuncture group received continuous electrical stimulation at two established acupuncture points on the pericardium channel, Neiguan and Ximen, whilst the sham group received stimulation at non-acupuncture points.
Patients receiving genuine electroacupuncture reported significantly lower chest pain scores during the procedure. Markers of heart muscle injury measured twenty-four hours after the procedure also showed a favourable pattern: high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T levels were significantly lower in the electroacupuncture group, although another marker, creatine kinase muscle-brain fraction, showed no significant difference between groups. Similarly, two inflammatory markers — tumour necrosis factor alpha and interleukin-6 — were significantly reduced in the electroacupuncture group, whilst two others showed no significant difference. Adverse event rates were similar between groups, supporting the safety of the approach.
The authors propose that electroacupuncture’s benefits may be partly mediated through dampening the body’s inflammatory response during the procedure. They caution that these are preliminary findings from a single centre and call for larger, multi-centre trials to confirm the results.
Conclusion: Intraoperative electroacupuncture appears to be a safe and potentially beneficial adjunct during percutaneous coronary intervention, reducing procedural chest pain and showing early signs of heart-protective effects.
Source: Liang YP, Zhang YS, Zhang AM and colleagues. Explore (New York, N.Y.) (2026). View on PubMed (PMID 42398473) · doi:10.1016/j.explore.2026.103469