Narrow Results

On nine unanesthetized male rabbits, the frequency spectra of hypothalamic electrogram (EEG) were studied during low intensity (10 mW/cm2) millimeter wave (55–75 GHz) exposure to various acupuncture points (zone): auricular, cranial and corporal. The chances of occurrence of significant (p < 0.05) changes in the EEG spectra during irradiation versus. sham experiments were equal to 31, 21 and 5%, respectively. Exposure to auricular zone reduced the EEG power in narrow bands with central frequencies of 5.3, 15.9 Hz and increased ones of 2.6, 3.2, 6.9, 7.9, 11.5 and 25.6 Hz. The main effect of exposure to cranial zone was similar — changes at 15.9 and 25.6 Hz only. The data obtained demonstrate that the responsiveness of the central nervous system to low intensity millimeter wave radiation may depend on the location of the exposed acupuncture zone.

The cun measurement system, an essential and convenient method for locating acupoints, has been widely used in the practice of acupuncture. However, the traditional cun measurement methods have been criticized for their lack of reliability. In addition, new technology has become available to measure the soft tissue and bone mass independently. The present study was conducted in order to determine if one cun, measured by the directional method, is consistent with proportional methods and to investigate whether both methods can be used to locate acupoints. The lengths of bone from several parts of the body in 47 Korean women were measured using Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry. The lengths of each part of the body were compared with 3 cun measured by proportional methods, and the width of all four fingers measured at the level of the proximal inter-phalangeal joint used in the directional method. The results showed that one cun measured by the directional method was significantly different from one cun by proportional methods. The directional method is likely less dependable in locating acupoints than the proportional method.

As a traditional Chinese alternative health care approach, acupuncture is gaining increasing attention and reputation in China and overseas. While becoming increasingly popular globally, some consumers and professionals still know little about the therapy and underlying mechanisms of acupuncture. Due to local superiority, there are large numbers of both clinical applications and mechanistic studies performed in China compared to countries overseas. Herein, this review attempts to give a comprehensive profile of the development, application, and mechanisms of acupuncture in treating major diseases. The number of clinical publications concerning acupuncture-treated neurological diseases, endocrine and metabolic diseases, circulatory diseases, respiratory diseases, etc. is first counted, and then, the application and therapeutic mechanisms of acupuncture on the predominant diseases in each category, including obesity, facial paralysis, sciatica, depression, hypertension, asthma, etc., are specifically discussed in this paper. The evolution of acupuncture tools and the rationality of acupoints are also discussed. This review not only summarizes the mechanisms of acupuncture but also provides useful information, such as specific acupoints and acupuncture procedures, for treating common diseases. Therefore, the current study provides useful information for both investigators and acupuncturists.

Acupuncture has been used as a therapeutic intervention for the treatment of numerous diseases and symptoms for thousands of years, and low back pain has been studied and treated the most in acupuncture clinics. Traditional theory strongly suggests that the selection of acupoints will influence their clinical effects and combinations (e.g., the clinical effects of a particular acupoint or combination on reducing pain), but this idea was not considered in earlier systematic reviews and meta-analyses. We performed a systematic review, meta-analysis, and network analysis to evaluate the magnitude of the effects of acupoints used to treat low back pain in randomized controlled clinical trials. We found that acupuncture significantly reduced pain in patients with low back pain compared with the control group. The most frequently prescribed acupoints were BL23, GV3, BL20, BL40, and BL25, whereas the acupoints with the highest average effect size scores were BL20, GV3, GB30, GB34, and BL25. Further, the combinations of BL23-BL40, BL23-B25, and BL23-BL60 were the most frequently prescribed, while BL23-GV3, BL40-GV4, and BL23-BL25 showed the largest average effect size. By calculating clinical outcomes based on average effect sizes, we found that the most popular acupoints might not always be associated with the best results. Although a more thorough investigation is necessary to determine the clinical effects of each acupoint and combination on patients, we suggest that our approach may offer a fresh perspective that will be useful for future research.

Electronic Three-Dimensional Atlas of Acupuncture.

Aiming at the problems of the acupuncture robot’s difficulty in positioning acupoints and poor acupuncture accuracy, a hand–eye coordination control method is proposed in this paper. First, according to the specificity of acupuncture, a label-based acupoint positioning method was designed, and then the task of acupuncture acupoints was transformed into acupuncture with specific shapes of labels. Second, the vision subsystem was designed from detection, to label contour matching, to multi-label recognition based on tracking algorithm. Last, according to the control signal amount processed by the vision subsystem, the image Jacobian matrix, and the strategy of monocular hierarchical control, the main hand–eye coordination problem of the fixed-point needling in the acupuncture task is completed. The experimental results show that the method is used for acupuncture and acupuncture puncture with better puncture effect and higher positioning accuracy, which can meet the needs of acupuncture tasks.

Acupuncture has been used as a therapeutic intervention for the treatment of numerous diseases and symptoms for thousands of years, and low back pain has been studied and treated the most in acupuncture clinics. Traditional theory strongly suggests that the selection of acupoints will influence their clinical effects and combinations (e.g., the clinical effects of a particular acupoint or combination on reducing pain), but this idea was not considered in earlier systematic reviews and meta-analyses. We performed a systematic review, meta-analysis, and network analysis to evaluate the magnitude of the effects of acupoints used to treat low back pain in randomized controlled clinical trials. We found that acupuncture significantly reduced pain in patients with low back pain compared with the control group. The most frequently prescribed acupoints were BL23, GV3, BL20, BL40, and BL25, whereas the acupoints with the highest average effect size scores were BL20, GV3, GB30, GB34, and BL25. Further, the combinations of BL23-BL40, BL23-B25, and BL23-BL60 were the most frequently prescribed, while BL23-GV3, BL40-GV4, and BL23-BL25 showed the largest average effect size. By calculating clinical outcomes based on average effect sizes, we found that the most popular acupoints might not always be associated with the best results. Although a more thorough investigation is necessary to determine the clinical effects of each acupoint and combination on patients, we suggest that our approach may offer a fresh perspective that will be useful for future research.

As a traditional Chinese alternative health care approach, acupuncture is gaining increasing attention and reputation in China and overseas. While becoming increasingly popular globally, some consumers and professionals still know little about the therapy and underlying mechanisms of acupuncture. Due to local superiority, there are large numbers of both clinical applications and mechanistic studies performed in China compared to countries overseas. Herein, this review attempts to give a comprehensive profile of the development, application, and mechanisms of acupuncture in treating major diseases. The number of clinical publications concerning acupuncture-treated neurological diseases, endocrine and metabolic diseases, circulatory diseases, respiratory diseases, etc. is first counted, and then, the application and therapeutic mechanisms of acupuncture on the predominant diseases in each category, including obesity, facial paralysis, sciatica, depression, hypertension, asthma, etc., are specifically discussed in this paper. The evolution of acupuncture tools and the rationality of acupoints are also discussed. This review not only summarizes the mechanisms of acupuncture but also provides useful information, such as specific acupoints and acupuncture procedures, for treating common diseases. Therefore, the current study provides useful information for both investigators and acupuncturists.

Acupoints are important in acupuncture. But research on acupoints signals and their processing is seldom met. In this paper, we acquire acupoints signals from three acupoints of “Quchi (LI 11)”, “Hegu (LI 4)” and “Lieque (LU 7)”. Using the wavelet transform, we de-noise the signals. The de-noising steps include decomposition, thresholding, and reconstructing of the signals. The results show that noise signals are successfully de-noised from the mixture signals of acupoints.

In this article, we describe the theory of acupuncture manipulation of dangerous acupoints in ancient classic works; introduce the methods of stratified anatomy and layer anatomy; and sum up the safe needling depths, dangerous needling depths and needling angles for dangerous acupoints on the cervical part, chest, abdomen and back. This paper serves as a reference for clinical acupuncturists seeking to improve therapeutic effects and prevent accidents.