Randomization and acupuncture treatment
The study was randomized, quasi double-blinded, and
placebo controlled.33 To test whether acupuncture is able to
reduce the primary clinically endpoints (days with migraine/
month and duration of migraine attacks in hours/
month) and to modulate vasotonus and cerebrovascular response
for needling of classic acupuncture points according
to Traditional Chinese Medicine recommendations, patients
were randomly allocated to 2 groups receiving either verum
acupuncture (VA; n = 18) or a placebo acupuncture (PA;
n = 17) treatment. Groups were parallelized according to age,
FIG. 1. Printout of a transcranial Doppler record within an
epoch of 26 seconds. The upper trace represents the enddiastolic
flow velocity (cm/s). Cerebral Valsalva ratio (CVR)
is calculated by changes of flow velocity per time using the
end-diastolic maximum blood flow acceleration (dV/dT).
The lower trace is a recording of the corresponding blood
pressure (mm Hg). Centroperipheral Valsalva ratio is calculated
by the quotient of CVR (dV/dT) and the concomitant
changes of blood pressure per time (dP/dT). Blood pressure
restoration happens later than cerebral blood flow acceleration,
indicating autonomic cerebrovascular reactivity during
straining in Valsalva maneuver (phase IIb).