VIII. 14. Scientific Evaluation on Effects of Chiropractic Treatment, a Type of Manual Therapy, Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET)

Chiropractic treatment is known as an alternative care mainly for back pain. This study is to investigate effects of the treatment in treated peripheral structures using MRI analysis and in the central nervous system (CNS) using FDG-PET analysis. In the MRI analysis, sagittal lumbo-sacral images were taken before and after the treatment, and those images were compared. In the FDG-PET investigation, brain PET scanning was performed twice on each subject with and without chiropractic treatment. Significant differences were observed on both MRI and FDG-PET analyses. Therefore, this study may indicate effects of chiropractic treatment on treated peripheral structures and the CNS.