Comparative study on skin temperature response to menstruation at acupuncture points in healthy volunteers and primary dysmenorrhea patients

OBJECTIVE:To assess skin temperature response to menstruation at acupuncture points in primary dysmenorrhea(PD) patients and healthy volunteers so as to explore acupuncture point specificity in reflecting diseases in the light of skin temperature.METHODS:Fifty-two PD patients and 49 healthy volunteers were recruited.Skin temperature measurements were performed with a skin temperature assessment device at 10 points.Absolute difference between skin temperature of the same point on the left and right side is used as main outcome measure.RESULTS:On the first day of menstruation, when menstrual pain attacking in PD patients, a significant increase in skin temperature difference was detected at Taixi(KI 3) compared with the healthy group(P < 0.01).A significant reduction in skin temperature difference was detected at Taixi(KI 3) in the first day of menstruation compared with those values in the third day after menstruation(P < 0.01)in the healthy group.On the third day after menstruation, a significant reduction in skin temperature difference was found at Zhongdu(LR 6) in PD group compared with the healthy group(P < 0.05).No significant differences of skin temperature were detected at other points(P > 0.05).CONCLUSION:The skin temperature difference at menstruation-relevant points in PD patients did not all change significantly more than those in women without PD.Significant difference was only found in Taixi(KI 3), the Yuan-source point of Kidney meridian.

Effect of auricular point sticking therapy on infantile amblyopia

Objective To compare the differences of effect on infantile amblyopia treated with auricular point sticking therapy and regular comprehensive therapy of western medicine.Methods Two hundreds and thirty cases of amblyopia patients were randomly divided into two groups,namely the group of auricular point sticking therapy,which had 120 cases（212 eyes）,and the group of comprehensive therapy,which had 110 cases（194 eyes）.The seed of Semen Vaccariae was applied at the ear point such as the eye,ear Shenmen,the liver,the spleen and the kidney.Regular comprehensive therapy of western medicine included covering method,vision corrected with glasses and fine exercise.Vision improvements of the two groups were observed with a three-year follow up.Results The effective rates of the auricular point sticking therapy group and comprehensive therapy group of ametropic amblyopia were 81.0%（64/79） and 52.2%（36/69）,respectively.The effective rates of anisometropic amblyopia of the two groups were 73.1%（49/67） and 47.7%（31/65）,respectively.And the effective rates of the two groups of strabismic amblyopia were 71.2%（47/66） and 45.0%（27/60）,respectively.The therapeutic effects of auricular point sticking therapy on all kinds of amblyopia were better than those of the comprehensive therapy（all P0.05）.Conclusion The effect of auricular point sticking therapy on infantile amblyopia is better than that of regular comprehensive therapy of western medicine,which can obviously improve the vision of the patients with easy manipulations.