The "treatment" that a Judo rehabilitator mainly performs on muscles, such as rubbing, rubbing, pushing, and tapping, is called manual therapy.It has been regarded as a cost-effective treatment method that relieves muscle tension and pain, removes waste products in the body by promoting blood flow, and does not rely on drugs or surgical procedures.However, the effect was performed only by the subjective evaluation of the practitioner and the side who received the manual therapy, and the objective evaluation was poor.

　Therefore, we focused on diffusion correlation spectroscopy (DCS), which can measure changes in blood flow in living tissues from the diffusion state of near-infrared light irradiated inside the body.He has developed a muscle blood flow imaging method that can continuously measure the trapezius muscle, which is a common site for stiff shoulders.As a result of the measurement, the average blood flow of the trapezius muscle was increased by about 5 times by the 1.4-minute manual therapy compared to the case where the patient was rested for the same time.Furthermore, the heart rate, blood pressure, and autonomic nervous activity did not change before and after the procedure therapy, and only the blood flow of the target muscle was increased without affecting the circulatory state of the whole body.In addition, those with stiff shoulders (those with stiff trapezius muscles) had increased muscle blood flow than those without stiff shoulders.

　This time, we succeeded in objectively evaluating the effect of manual therapy by quantifying changes in muscle blood flow using DCS technology.In the future, it is expected to be applied to the monitoring of the therapeutic effect of patients undergoing manual therapy and the education of practitioners.

Paper information:[Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology] Evaluation of local skeletal muscle blood flow in manipulative therapy by diffuse correlation spectroscopy