Infrared Thermal Imaging Temperature Changes Of Bronchial Asthma Related Acupuncture Point Of The Research

Background:There is a certain corresponding relationship between the distributive parts of acupoint pathological reactions and the sick organs, especially the specific points like transport points, alarm points, etc., which have a great significance in the clinical diagnosis of visceral diseases and syndromes. Besides the traditional "meridian palpation", in recent years, the acupoint examination methods have been extensively explored in the aspects of sound, light, electricity, and heat. Used in the medical field, infrared thermal imaging technology can collect and analyze the body’s information comprehensively, holistically, dynamically and non-invasively. By observing the changes of body surface temperatures with the technology, researchers can study the physiological and pathological phenomena of the human body. In the acupuncture research field, the technology can be use to observe the temperature changes of meridians and acupoints.Objectives:According to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) theory, bronchial asthma is a lung system disease, whose diseased position is lung. Its occurrence and development is also related to other organs close to the lung. By observing the surface temperature changes of meridian points related to the lung, large intestine and their neighbor heart and small intestine of bronchial asthma patients, the study has discussed the acupoint pathological response characteristics of the bronchial asthma patients. The research aims to provide objective evidence to the meridian acupoint diagnosis and acupuncture treatment of bronchial asthma, and perform a confirmative research to the TCM theory of "the interior-exterior relationship between the lung and large intestine"Methods:In this project,68cases with bronchial asthma of chronic persistent midterm degree is selected as the research subjects of test group, and15healthy people as those of control group. The subjects were detected by AT1R-M301medical infrared thermal imager to collect infrared thermal images of the whole body. Then, the researchers selected the transport points, alarm points and sea points of lung meridian, large intestine meridian, heart meridian and small intestine meridian, and EX-HN3(yin tang) in the collected infrared thermal images, recorded their temperatures to analyze and compare.Results: (1) Control group:The temperature between the left and right points in lung, large intestine, heart, small intestine meridians of healthy people (ΔT) have no significant differences (P>0.05), which demonstrates that for healthy people the bilateral temperatures of the same point are relatively symmetric, no obvious bilateral imbalance. There are no significant differences for healthy people in the temperature comparisons of the lung and heart meridians, large intestine and small intestine meridians (P>0.05).(2) Experimental group:For asthma patients, there is a significant temperature difference between the left and right LU1(zhong fu), the alarm point of lung meridian (ΔT)(P<0.05); while there are no significant temperature differences bilaterally of other points (ΔT)(P>0.05). There are no significant differences for asthma patients in the temperature comparisons of the lung and heart meridians, large intestine and small intestine meridians (P>0.05).(3) Control group and experimental group:The temperature values of ST25(tian shu), LI4(he gu), LI11(qu chi) of bronchial asthma patients are lower than those of healthy people, and the differences are significant (P<0.05). There are no significant temperature differences of other points (P>0.05) between the two groups.Conclusions:(1) In this study, the infrared thermal imager is applied to detect patients with bronchial asthma, finding that the temperatures of the left and right LU1(zhony fu), the alarm point of lung meridian, are out of balance. The temperatures of ST25(tian shu)-the alarm point, L14(he gu)-source point, LI11(qu chi)-sea point of large intestine meridian of bronchial asthma patients are lower than those of healthy people.This shows that the pathological response of patients with bronchial asthma on the Meridian points specific.(2) The infrared thermal imaging technology can provide certain evidence to the meridian acupoint diagnosis and acupuncture treatment of bronchial asthma,(3) In this study, from the angle of meridian point responding to the visceral diseases, the evidence of "the interior-exterior relationship between the lung and large intestine" theory is provided.(4) When the infrared thermal imager is applied to study the temperature changes of human body, the differences due to different individual basal body temperature should be considered.