In 1994, JMPT published the results of a pilot study which was done in 1991-1992 in Moscow. Adult patients with endoscopically confirmed diagnosis of uncomplicated duodenal ulcer and without any other concurrent diseases were treated by spinal manipulations only. The initial results were very promising, and a clinical trial was started to compare the effects of manipulative treatment with traditional drug treatment. Using weekly endoscopy as an assessment method, we found that duodenal ulcers were healed in patients treated by spinal manipulations and without drugs an average of 10 days earlier than in patients treated with drugs. Moreover, the patterns of ulcer healing (absence or presence and quality of scar, dimensional characteristics of ulcers) were much more favorable in patients in our experimental group. The long term follow-up showed no recurrence of duodenal ulcers in the group treated by spinal manipulation in comparison to a 20% recurrence rate in medically treated patients.

With true heart problems, viscerosomatic reflex patterns are involved in the presentation of characteristic findings. Those dealing with coronary artery disease or ischemic conditions of the heart consist of the involvement of two or more adjacent spinal segments from T1 to T5, with T2 and T3 being most frequently involved. Changes are characterized by deep muscle splinting reaction over the lateral half of the transverse process extending an equal distance laterally beyond the top of the transverse process, along with a resistance to segmental spinal motion. Later data show the peak incidence of spinal findings in the C2-C3, T2-T4, T9-T10 and L5-S1 areas in 76 patients diagnosed with coronary artery disease.

Clinical findings of ECG improvements following spinal manipulations (normalization of sinus rhythm, decrease of tachycardia and premature ventricular contractions) support the evidence of somatovisceral patterns and show the effectiveness of spinal manipulations for certain heart disorders.