Abstract
At the moment, modernization of acupuncture has a high priority. On the traditional side, acupuncture has only recently been awarded the status of Intangible Cultural Heritage by the UNESCO. On the innovative side, high-tech acupuncture is a registered trademark in Austria. Acupuncture has been used for medical treatment for thousands of years. A large number of empirical data are available but the technical quantification of effects was not possible up to now. Using electroacupuncture, needle, or laser stimulation and modern biomedical techniques, it was possible for the first time to quantify changes in biological activities caused by acupuncture. This paper which serves as introduction for the special issue “High-Tech Acupuncture and Integrative Laser Medicine” of the present journal, focuses on the latest innovative aspects that underline the further enhancement and development of acupuncture. Special emphasis is given to new methodological and technical investigations, for example, results obtained from all kinds of acupuncture innovations (e.g., teleacupuncture) and integrative laser medicine.
Highlights
The scientific and technological progress has truly revolutionized eastern and western experimental and clinical medicine recently
In addition to visual classification, calculation of alterations of mean perfusion was performed. These results suggest that the new biomedical method of laser Doppler imaging may be useful to monitor peripheral effects of acupuncture on microcirculation
The computerand robotic-controlled biosensors and probes integrated in a special measurement helmet, coupled with light, ultrasound and highly sensitive bioelectrical monitoring methods yield reproducible results indicating that the blood flow velocity in the middle cerebral artery (MCA) is higher and the oxygen supply in the brain is increased by acupuncture in healthy volunteers [44, 46]
Summary
The scientific and technological progress has truly revolutionized eastern and western experimental and clinical medicine recently. At the Medical University of Graz, our TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) Research Center has made various efforts within the last 15 years to modernize acupuncture [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11], one of the most spectacular Eastern medical procedures. High-tech acupuncture comprises many different forms of stimulation and recording techniques At the high-tech acupuncture laboratory (see Figure 1) of the Medical University of Graz, a broad spectrum of future-oriented bioengineering methods is used in joint projects with different leading acupuncture institutions in China. The usage of advanced exploratory tools multidirectional transcranial Doppler ultrasound sonography, cerebral near infrared spectroscopy, functional magnetic resonance imaging, different bioelectrical methods, and other highly sophisticated biomedical equipments, provides revealing insights. The obtained results are absolutely necessary for the acceptance of acupuncture by the western medical community
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