Abstract
Acupoint specificity for diseases has consistently been the focus of acupuncture research owing to its excellent prospects for clinical diagnosis and treatment. However, the specificity of cardiovascular and sleep functions in terms of electrical signals at acupoints remains unclear. In this study, five volunteers were recruited and their electrophysiological signals of GV20 (baihui), RN17 (danzhong), PC6 (neiguan), and SP6 (sanyinjiao) and the corresponding sham points, Pittsburgh sleep quality index, blood pressure, and echocardiography were monitored over four periods of 90-day head-down bed rest (HDBR). The results demonstrated that the power and characteristic amplitude of the acupoints were more significant than those of the sham points under normal conditions. And along with the altered physiological condition of the body after HDBR, the differential signal characteristic amplitude (DSCA) and the power of the acupoints were decreased to a larger extent than those of the sham points. In addition, the difference between the power of acupuncture and sham points was also reduced. During the recovery period, except for GV20, the power and DSCA of other acupoints did not return to normal. In terms of DSCA, GV20 is related to human sleep function and other acupoints are related to cardiovascular function. The above results show that the electrophysiological signals of acupoints are disease-specific and more accurately reflect the changes of physiological homeostasis. The research conduces to the development of acupuncture-based disease diagnosis and treatment integrated methods, and the realization of the portable and accurate diagnosis and regulation of diseases in space medicine.
Highlights
A CUPUNCTURE is an important component of Traditional Chinese Medicine and has been popular and accepted among healthcare professionals worldwide [1]
The results show that the electrophysiological signals at RN17, PC6, and SP6 are specific for cardiovascular function, and GV20 is specific for sleep function
We found that the powers and the characteristic amplitude (CA) of the electrophysiological signal at the acupoints were higher than the corresponding sham points, which may be related to the distribution characteristics of the acupoints
Summary
A CUPUNCTURE is an important component of Traditional Chinese Medicine and has been popular and accepted among healthcare professionals worldwide [1]. The GV20 [5] (baihui) acupoint can improve the sleep conditions in animal and volunteer studies. The acupoint specificity is an important indicator of the pathological and physiological state of the human body. Studies have shown that changes in acupoints status are highly associated with the condition of internal organs [6]–[8], which may be resulted from the cutaneous neurogenic inflammation [9]–[12]. Acupoint specificity provides a potential method for quantifying acupoint characteristics and disease diagnosis [13]. The analysis of bioelectrical signals of acupoints is an important method to study acupoint specificity, which is critical for clinical diagnosis and treatment. Research on the electrical signals of human acupoints is divided into electrical impedance analysis and potential analysis [21].
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