scholarly journals Electrical Potential of Acupuncture Points: Use of a Noncontact Scanning Kelvin Probe

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian J. Gow ◽  
Justine L. Cheng ◽  
Iain D. Baikie ◽  
Ørjan G. Martinsen ◽  
Min Zhao ◽  
...  

Objective. Acupuncture points are reportedly distinguishable by their electrical properties. However, confounders arising from skin-to-electrode contact used in traditional electrodermal methods have contributed to controversies over this claim. The Scanning Kelvin Probe is a state-of-the-art device that measures electrical potential without actually touching the skin and is thus capable of overcoming these confounding effects. In this study, we evaluated the electrical potential profiles of acupoints LI-4 and PC-6 and their adjacent controls. We hypothesize that acupuncture point sites are associated with increased variability in potential compared to adjacent control sites.Methods. Twelve healthy individuals were recruited for this study. Acupuncture points LI-4 and PC-6 and their adjacent controls were assessed. A 2 mm probe tip was placed over the predetermined skin site and adjusted to a tip-to-sample distance of 1.0 mm under tip oscillation settings of 62.4 Hz frequency. A surface potential scan spanning a 1.0 cm × 1.0 cm area was obtained.Results. At both the PC-6 and LI-4 sites, no significant differences in mean potential were observed compared to their respective controls (Wilcoxon rank-sum test, and 0.79, resp.). However, the LI-4 site was associated with significant increase in variability compared to its control as denoted by standard deviation and range ( and 0.0005, resp.). At the PC-6 site, no statistical differences in variability were observed.Conclusion. Acupuncture points may be associated with increased variability in electrical potential.

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yine Hu ◽  
Huayuan Yang ◽  
Pin Wang ◽  
Tangyi Liu ◽  
Wenchao Tang

Skin impedance at acupuncture points (APs) has been used as a diagnostic aid for more than 50 years. In this study, we have a diagnostic tool (JXT-2008) to measure the skin impedance of ear APs of 30 breast cancer patients and the corresponding skin impedance of ear APs of 30 healthy humans, and then we compared these changes in ear AP impedance in breast cancer patients and healthy individuals.


2009 ◽  
Vol 1165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helio Moutinho ◽  
Ramesh Dhere ◽  
Chun-Sheng Jiang ◽  
Mowafak Al-Jassim

AbstractWe have investigated different methods for preparing CdTe/CdS cross sections for electrical measurements, including the following: cleaving; using GaAs substrates; and sandwiching the structure between the substrate and a glass slide, and polishing with diamond discs and alumina suspension. The latter method proved to be the most reliable, with a success rate of over 90%.We investigated cross sections of CdTe/CdS samples with scanning Kelvin probe microscopy (SKPM) using two different methods: applying the alternate bias with a frequency equal to 18.5 kHz, or equal to the frequency of the second cantilever resonance peak. The results showed that using the second resonance frequency produced a smoother signal, allowing the calculation of the electric field inside the device using just the raw SKPM data.We were able to measure the distribution of the electrical potential inside working devices. Then, by taking the first derivative of the potential, we calculated the electric field and determined the location of the p-n junction.


2003 ◽  
Vol 93 (12) ◽  
pp. 10035-10040 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chun-Sheng Jiang ◽  
H. R. Moutinho ◽  
D. J. Friedman ◽  
J. F. Geisz ◽  
M. M. Al-Jassim

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