Human Acupoint Research Articles

Multimodal Massage Localization Algorithm for Human Acupoints

As the aging population issue worsens, people are experiencing increasing life pressures, and the elderly are unable to receive sufficient care, intensifying the demand for home-based intelligent massage healthcare robots. Addressing the challenges faced by users in expressing preferences for specific areas like the back through gestures or voice during the use of massage robots, and the issue of elderly individuals expressing imprecisely, which hinders effective communication of the desired massage target location to the robot, this paper proposes a new human-machine interaction mode for massage robots. The main innovations include: achieving precise control of the massage area through the representation of a virtual human body on the screen; proposing a virtual-to-real mapping algorithm based on human acupoints to address the consistency issue in human virtual-to-real mapping; introducing a multimodal intent understanding algorithm based on dynamic information entropy to address the current limitations of a single interaction mode and low intent comprehension rates in massage robot interactions. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed multimodal massage localization algorithm achieves good massage intent recognition effects. By combining natural human-machine interaction with intent understanding, it not only accurately captures user massage intentions and assists in completing massage tasks but also reduces user psychological and cognitive loads, leading to more desirable interaction outcomes.

A Traditional Chinese Medicine Characteristic Therapy for Bronchial Asthma: Moxibustion.

Bronchial asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airway which can lead to symptoms such as recurrent wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, or cough, as a result of increased airway reactivity. With high diurnal variation, these symptoms often occur or worsen at night or in the morning. By burning and roasting the Chinese medica above human acupoints, moxibustion is a type of treatment that stimulates the activity of the human meridians through drugs and heat stimulation to prevent and treat diseases. According to the principle of syndrome differentiation and treatment of traditional Chinese medicine, acupoints are selected on the corresponding parts, which has a definite effect. It is regarded as a characteristic traditional Chinese medicine therapy for bronchial asthma. This protocol elaborates the methods and steps of patient management, material preparation, selection of acupoints, operation, and postoperative nursing to ensure safe and effective moxibustion treatment to significantly improve the clinical symptoms and quality of life of patients with bronchial asthma.

Research and application of liquid cooling garment system based on human acupoints and meridians cooling stimulation in the high temperature environment

As a cooling device for cooling the human body, the cooling garment has been used in many fields. This study was guided by the theory of traditional Chinese medi?cine, an acupoints-meridians cooling vest (AMCV) system was designed to cold and stimulate the acupoints and meridians of the human body. Three healthy male subjects were recruited to participate in the test, with AMCV or without AMCV (CON), in a high temperature environment (37 ?1?, 46 ?3% RH) to simulate standing on duty for 50 minutes. The results showed that the skin temperature, Tskin, with AMCV was lower than that with CON (p < 0.05). The average Tskin with AMCV decreased by 0.45 ? more than that with CON (p < 0.05). The average tympanic temperature, Tty, with AMCV was lower than that with CON (p < 0.05). Howev?er, the average Tty with AMCV decreased by 0.05? more than that with CON (p < 0.05). The heart rate with AMCV was significantly lower than that with CON (p < 0.05). The average thermal sensation and thermal comfort with AMCV were better than those with CON in the corresponding period (p < 0.05). The results indicated that AMCV could improve thermal comfort and reduce the heat strain of the human body in a high temperature environment.

Exploration of GAO Shu-zhong's academic thought of acupuncture and moxibustion

This paper summarizes professor GAO Shu-zhong's academic thought of acupuncture and moxibustion. Professor GAO studies classic literature and clarifies the authentic Chinese medicine from the origin. He provides the unique understandings on the theories, e.g "four passes", gaohuang, the flowing rule of nutrient and defensive qi, lung governing management and regulation and moxibustion for sinking of qi. By analyzing the differences in diagnosis and treatment between acupuncture and herbal medication therapies and exploring the syndrome/pattern differentiation, he advocates the rules of disorder differentiation and treatment in clinical practice of acupuncture and moxibustion, creates GAO 's three-promotion theory and summarizes the characteristic diagnostic methods. He proposes novel statement, perfects theoretic system and creates GAO's extra points. He puts forward that the human acupoint system should be reconstructed to compose of two systems, i.e. meridian acupoints and collateral acupoints systems. Professor GAO pays the attention to acupuncture techniques, proposes a trinity needling technique, "pulse diagnosis, acupoint detection and qi differentiation under needle", and applies different needling techniques in treatment accordingly. He thinks highly of moxibustion, especially umbilicus moxibustion therapy, which has been used widely in practice. Besides, professor GAO provides the comprehensive methods flexibly, with acupuncture, moxibustion and herbal medication in combination.

10.6-\u03bcm infrared laser as adjuvant therapy for diabetic peripheral neuropathy: study protocol for a double-blind, randomized controlled trial

BackgroundDiabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) is the most common chronic neurological complication. It is the main cause of disability in diabetes mellitus (DM) patients and seriously affects the quality of life of patients. Pharmacological treatments always associate with limited efficacy and adverse effects. Moxibustion has been recommended to treat DPN as an adjuvant therapy to conventional medical treatment to accelerate alleviation of the symptoms of DPN. 10.6-μm laser moxibustion (LM), whose wavelength is close to the peak of infrared radiation spectrum of the traditional moxibustion as well as human acupoints, produces the thermal effect similar with moxibustion but with no smoke or smell. The purpose of this sham controlled clinical trial is to determine the effect and safety of 10.6-μm LM as adjuvant therapy in patients with DPN.MethodsThis is a protocol for a randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled trial. One hundred fourteen patients meeting the inclusion and exclusion criteria will be recruited and randomly assigned to the LM group or the sham LM group with a 1:1 allocation ratio. Patients in both groups will receive a basic integrated treatment of Chinese and Western medicine and a total of 12 sessions of true or sham LM treatments over 4 weeks with 3 sessions a week. The primary outcome is nerve conduction velocity (NCV), and the secondary outcomes include Michigan Neuropathy Screening Instrument (MNSI) scores, Diabetes-Specific Quality of Life (DSQL) scores, blood rheology parameters, and assessments of safety and blinding. Outcome measures will be collected at baseline, 2 weeks after treatment, the end of LM treatments (4 weeks), and 4, 8 weeks after the end of LM treatment (8, 12weeks).DiscussionThis study will be conducted to compare the efficacy of LM versus sham LM combined with medical treatment. 10.6-μm LM may alleviate symptoms, improve quality of life, and reduce the dosage of drugs as well as avoid causing serious side effects.Trial registrationChinese Clinical Trial Registry ChiCTR2000029329. Registered on 25 January 2020.

Quantum correlating measurements of human-body delayed luminescence and preliminary experimental results

Biological delayed luminescence (DL) refers to the emission of photons of 200-800 nm after an organism is exposed to a beam of light. At present, DL research is mostly conducted on plants and cells. Most human research uses low-temperature photomultiplier tubes (PMT) with poor performance. This paper introduces a newly developed dual-channel, coincident counting DL acquisition system, as well as preliminary experimental results with acupuncture meridians and acupoints in humans. The system employs two low-noise SPAD (single photon avalanche diode) modules to achieve not only a time resolution as low as 1 μs, but also a spatio-temporal correlation relation between two simultaneous measurements. Using a laser excitation of 400 nm and 532 nm, we measured the DL emission for different parts of the human body and found that the corresponding DL curves follow the hyperbolic law of I = I 0 ( 1 + t τ ) − γ . The emission curves are sensitive to many factors including the current health state of the participants. We hypothesize that DL emission is a quantum process involving a variety of functional biomolecules in the human body, and that various DL curve parameters could reflect information about human health and disease. We predict that quantitative analysis, based on accurately measured DL emission, will provide a powerful new tool for monitoring human health in the future.

Research on the Specificity of Electrophysiological Signals of Human Acupoints Based on the 90-Day Simulated Weightlessness Experiment on the Ground.

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.

Location, selection, and comparative anatomy of "Taixi" (KI3), "Shuiquan" (KI5), "Fuliu" (KI7), "Jiaoxin" (KI8), "Zhubin" (KI9), and "Yingu"(KI10) acupoints in rabbits

To investigate the. for locating and selecting the acupoints of "Taixi" (KI3), "Shuiquan" (KI5), "Fuliu" (KI7), "Jiaoxin" (KI8), "Zhubin" (KI9), and "Yingu" (KI10) and the morphological structure of these acupoints in rabbits. MethodsAccording to the WHO and national standards for human acupoints and rabbit X-ray images, acupoint locations were marked using the anatomical landmarks on body surface in 10 New Zealand rabbits. The acupoints were dissected to compare the homologous and analogous tissue between rabbits and human body and thus correct the locations of these acupoints. Potentials were measured for the 10 New Zealand rabbits at the corrected locations of the acupoints and around the acupoints, and the final locations of these acupoints were determined by comparing the anatomical results and the data of potentials. Anatomical observation was performed after marking, and the relationship between acupuncture needle and adjacent structure was observed. "Taixi" was located in the ankle area, at the midpoint between the prominence of the medial malleolus and the calca-neal tendon; "Shuiquan" was located in the calcaneal area below "Taixi" in the depression anterior to the calcaneal tuberosity; "Fuliu" was located at the medial side of the calf, at 2 cun above the prominence of the medial malleolus anterior to the calcaneal tendon; "Jiaoxin" was located at the medial side of the calf, at 2 cun above the prominence of the medial malleolus and in the depression posterior to the medial border of the tibia; "Zhubin" was located at the medial side of the calf, at 5 cun above the medial malleolus on the line between "Taixi" and "Yingu"; "Yingu" was located at the medial side of the knee, at the posterior-inferior border of the semitendinosus tendon on the popliteal crease. The results of skin potentials at the acupoints suggested that "Taixi", "Shuiquan", "Fuliu", and "Zhubin" were high-reliability acupoints, "Jiaoxin" was a medium-reliability acupoint, and "Yingu" was a low-reliability acupoint. Comparative anatomy combined with imaging, surface anatomy, and electrophysiological techniques of acupoints can help with the accurate localization and selection of acupoints in experimental animals, improve the reliability of acupoint location, and enrich the comparative anatomical data of acupoints.

Analysis of Human Acupoint Biological Information and Neural Electric Activity Based on Ultrasonographic Image

To find out the bioelectric signal discriminative features of different acupoints at the same time and at the same acupoint, and then analyze these differences to determine the type of acupuncture points and assist in judging the patient's condition, a hardware system was designed that can collect subcutaneous potential information of acupoints. Then, the changes of ultrasonic images were analyzed after acupuncture at Zu San Li, as well as the influence of acupuncture at Zu San Li on vagal nerve activity. The hardware system is composed of 4 parts: an analog circuit module, a digital circuit module, a power module, and a host personal computer. The power module adopted dual-module power supply mode, which was composed of MC78M05CT and LM2576 and their related peripheral circuits to ensure the stability of the circuit. The analog circuit module collected the electric signals from the 2 acupoints of Zu San Li and Shang Ju Xu of the volunteers' calves through a multistage electrode probe. In the amplifier module, Butterworth filter and 50 HZ notch are used to reduce the noise of electric signals. The filtered and amplified electric signals are converted into A/D converter in the digital circuit module. Serial communication is used to transmit data to the upper computer of the personal computer to compare the noise reduction effect of acupoint information, multiple sequences of different acupoints, and multiple sequences of the same acupoint. The influence of acupuncture at the Zu San Li acupoint on the muscle tension around the acupoint was investigated by shear wave acoustic elastic imaging technology. The influence of acupuncture at this acupoint was explored on vagal nerve activity. The results show that the wavelet noise reduction method can greatly filter out the interference signals. In the case of artificial stimulation, the signal waveform of each twist shows a big increase, and the comparison shows that there is no significant change in the frequency of other bands. Through ultrasonic image evaluation, it was found that acupuncture at Zu San Li can significantly affect the mean value of Young modulus. After acupuncture at Zu San Li, the vagal activity was increased and the balance ratio of sympathetic vagal activity was reduced. Part of the potential frequency of the acupoint is extremely active, which is the response potential of the subcutaneous induction tissue at the acupoint, which proved the feasibility of collecting electric signals around the acupoints in this kind of hardware system. It is of great significance to diagnose the disease according to the characteristics of acupoint electric signals.

Development of a novel massage platform for medical training.

BACKGROUND:Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) massage has a better effect on treating infant diarrhea compared to medical treatment. The TCM doctors need to be trained to master professional massage techniques. Traditional Chinese massage training relies on the students’ understanding ability, and cannot accurately record the students’ operating information. This situation leads to insufficient clinical massage skills of the students.OBJECTIVE: This paper proposes a novel massage training platform to quantitatively perceive the massage techniques of students.METHODS: The paper proposed two types of flexible array sensors, which are arranged and placed into the bionic baby according to the position of the human acupoints. The massage techniques of the training object can be analyzed and evaluated during the massage process by studying the voltage from pressure sensors when the participants massage the bionic infant.RESULTS: A medical student was invited to conduct the massage training experiment, and the massage information included the operating strength, massage frequency and the massage direction, which were recorded and analyzed through the training platform.CONCLUSION: The platform can perceive the parameters related to the massage technique of students and can be used for medical training.

Application of Acupuncture Acupoint Visual Teaching System by Neural Regulation

This thesis uses the traditional Chinese medicine theory as its background. This article analyzes in detail the visual teaching system for acupuncture on the human body to solve the problems of insufficient teaching resources and waste of corpses used in teaching. The dissertation is based on the mobile platform development technology of the Android operating system. Based on this, researchers have developed a visual teaching system for human acupuncture points based on digital platforms and mobile devices. This system presents acupuncture knowledge with mobile learning method. It can be displayed systematically on the selected human acupoint anatomy teaching model for 14 common clinical conditions. This article provides an intuitive and dynamic teaching method by presenting a system should realize modern digital teaching and application of traditional acupuncture theory.

User-perceived Information Visualization Method in Human Body Acupoint System

Information visualization is a trend and research hotspot in various fields. This paper constructs a user-perceived information visualization framework and applies it to the human acupoint system. A user-perceptual visualization method of three-layer architecture is proposed. A unified storage method and access interface are provided in the data unified layer to effectively manage data information. Then, in the user perception layer, the K-means clustering method is used to generate the expected interface of the system, which reduces the processing tasks of the subsequent visualization process. The visual implementation layer forms an actual interface for interface design such as interaction, navigation, and the like of the content of the intended interface. Finally, an application example of the acupoint system is given, which proves that the method can complete the visualization from the source data to the actual interface.

Human Acupoint Positioning System Based on Binocular Vision

To realize accurate positioning and recognition of human acupoints in medical treatment, the automatic human acupoints recognition system based on computer binocular vision technology is considered by us. We studied a camera calibration method by plane calibration lattice. To verify and accurately locate human acupoints in medical treatment, the method adopted the principle of binocular vision technology to collect different images of human body limbs to obtain three-dimensional coordinates of space, and the positioning errors of each marker point measured by binocular vision calculation and three-dimensional coordinate measuring instrument are compared. The results show that the system can assist medical personnel to complete the human acupoints recognition and positioning, and respond to the needs of the clinical application.

Mechanism study of the transmission of moxibustion heat in human acupoint tissues

Objective To discuss the topical action characteristics of the biological transmission of moxibustion heat via temperature collection and numerical modeling.

Design of new-style embedded acupoint recognition device

A new type of embedded acupoint recognition device was developed for acupoint recognition and teaching. Through improving the acupoint electric resistance detection technique of the two-electrode method, combined with mechanical structure design and embedded control technology, the human acupoint database was assembled in the embedded chip with the international symbol, acupoint name, pinyin, location, chart, manuscript and audio information included, a new type of embedded acupoint recognition device was designed. The device was composed of 3 modules, named the acupoint electric resistance detection system, the embedded control system and mechanical system. It achieved skin contact sensation, the collection of electric resistance at the required skin region, the wireless communication, the liquid crystal display (LCD) human-computer interaction and acupoint magnetic head massage. When used, the resistance value of the detected skin is read on LCD to determine whether the detected skin resistance meets the features of low resistance of acupoint and further to identify the acupoint zone. Afterward, the data collected are matched with the human acupoint database to determine the information of acupoint. The control mechanical structure achieves the acupoint pressing and kneading. After verified by many operation staff, it is shown that the device not only improves the recognition speed and precision of acupoint, but also contributes to the acupoint teaching with the human acupoint database displayed on LCD. The achievements benefit the promotion of meridians and acupoints as well as the development of acupuncture devices.

Electroacupuncture alleviates chemotherapy-induced pain through inhibiting phosphorylation of spinal CaMKII in rats.

Current medical treatments for chemotherapy-induced pain (CIP) are either ineffective or have adverse side effects. Acupuncture may alleviate CIP, but its effectiveness against this condition has not been studied. Paclitaxel causes neuropathic pain in cancer patients. We evaluated the effects of electroacupuncture (EA) on paclitaxel-induced CIP in a rat model. Paclitaxel (2mg/kg) or vehicle was injected (i.p.) on alternate days of 0-6. The resulting pain was treated with 10Hz/2mA/0.4ms pulse EA for 30min at the equivalent of human acupoint GB30 (Huantiao) once every other day between days 14 and 26. For sham control, EA needles were inserted into GB30 without stimulation. Von Frey filaments with bending forces of 2-8g and 15g were used to assess mechanical allodynia and hyperalgesia, respectively, on day 13 and once every other day between 14-26days and then for 2-3weeks after EA treatment. Compared to sham control, EA significantly alleviated paclitaxel-induced mechanical allodynia and hyperalgesia, as shown by less frequent withdrawal responses to the filaments. The alleviation of allodynia/hyperalgesia lasted up to 3weeks after the EA treatment. EA significantly inhibited phosphorylation of Ca2+ /calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) in the spinal cord. KN-93, a selective inhibitor of p-CaMKII, inhibited mechanical allodynia/hyperalgesia and p-CaMKII. 5-HT1A receptor antagonist blocked EA inhibition of allodynia/hyperalgesia and p-CaMKII. Electroacupuncture activates 5-HT 1A receptors in the spinal cord and inhibits p-CaMKII to alleviate both allodynia and hyperalgesia. The data support acupuncture/EA as a complementary therapy for CIP. Electroacupuncture (EA) activates spinal 5-HT1A receptors to inhibit p-CaMKII to alleviate paclitaxel-induced pain. Acupuncture/EA may be used as a complementary therapy for CIP.

Strategies for feet massage robot to position the pelma acupoints with model predictive and real-time optimization

It is one of critical factors for a massage robot to find and position the acupuncture point precisely in order to cure the diseases. Based on large amount of sample data offline, Chinese medical empirical knowledge is also introduced to build the prediction model. The massagist prescription and the robot mechanism devise are both considered for robot positioning. Least squares method is of simplicity, easy to use and high efficiency. Its real-time calculation is very effective, too. A modeling method for robot positioning is proposed based on least squares. Knowledge consultation is set for the calculation of acupoint position. The robot needs to get the feature points of a foot to be massaged. The foot contour sampling data are divided into piecewise curve fitting. Qlearning is adopted to optimize the robot positioning for they are model free. CMAC (Cerebellar Model Articulation Controller) cerebellum model is incorporated into the function approximation of Q learning. The learning system is rewarded by referring to the strengths of instrumental signal. By the direct representation, the model of human pelma acupoint is expressed with the vector variables and formal computer language. Through prediction model’s calculation, the robot will work out the rough position of acupuncture point. Meanwhile, Q learning does the online adjustment for accurate location. These strategies provide for the robot to automatically search and position the pelma acupoint with little real-time computation and storage. The idea of this paper also prompts a research cue for the development of Chinese medical standardization.

Haptic simulation for acupuncture needle manipulation.

Stimulation degree, biomechanical force, and de qi sensation are the three major components of needle manipulation. To date, it has been difficult to measure all three components quantitatively. To (1) measure and compare biomechanical forces of six human acupoints in vivo during haptic manipulation, (2) develop phantom acupoints with biomechanical forces similar to those of human acupoints, and (3) validate the newly developed phantom acupoints based on assessment by doctors of Korean medicine. The biomechanical force and needle grasp sensation (i.e., the practitioner's de qi sensation) of six human acupoints (LI4, LI11, LR3, ST36, ST25, and BL25) were assessed in 16 participants upon stimulation with the twisting manipulation technique. On the basis of biomechanical data from these human acupoints, phantom acupoints that generated similar biomechanical forces were developed by using 1%-7% agarose gel. In humans, the mean torque amplitudes of the six acupoints differed significantly. In the phantom, the biomechanical force was dose-dependently greater in higher-concentration agarose gel phantom acupoints. Biomechanical force and the needle grasp sensation were significantly correlated in both human and phantom acupoints. Importantly, practitioners could not discriminate between human and phantom acupoints, suggesting that the validity and credibility of the phantom acupoints are sufficient for applications in education and research. Application of force-validated phantom acupoints based on human data will be a helpful tool for training and will contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the characteristics of acupuncture manipulation.

Analysis of the frequency of clinical acupoint use based on ‘Traditional Chinese Medical Acupuncture-moxibustion Information Databank’

The frequencies of use of 361 human acupoints in 74 academic journals of traditional Chinese medicine published between 1949 and 2010 are arranged in order using ‘Traditional Chinese Medical Acupuncture-moxibustion Information Databank’. The frequencies of use are divided into five grades: most frequent use, more frequent use, frequent use, less frequent use and infrequent use. The most frequently used acupoints and infrequently used acupoints are summarized and analyzed to help point selection for clinical acupuncture and selection of acupuncture research projects in the future.

Abstracts and Commentaries on Key Articles in the Literature

Abstracts and Commentaries on Key Articles in the Literature