Detection of the effect of Moxibustion on QI-blood by optical coherence tomography

摘要

The theory of Chinese medicine meridian Qi-blood has a close correlation with human skin microcirculation. Toexplore the mechanism of moxibustion acting on human microcirculation and obtain more accurate detection results ofmoxibustion effect, a non-invasive detection method based on optical coherence tomography imaging was proposed.Moxibustion experiments were carried out on 10 healthy volunteers at the Laogong and Daling Point. The changes ofOCT backscattered signals at the skin of different acupuncture points were directly observed. Based on the singlescattering model of the OCT signal, the A-SCAN at the acupoint is fitted to obtain the attenuation coefficient of theacupoint skin. The results showed that within 30 minutes after moxibustion, compared with other acupoints on thehand, the intensity of the backscattered signal was decreased about 5 dB in the depths of 0.5-2mm at the skin ofacupuncture points of the same meridian. The attenuation coefficient increased significantly over time and reached apeak then decreased. At the peak, the attenuation coefficient increased to twice that before experiments. The opticalcoherence tomography system can directly reflect the changes of skin microcirculation, and further validate the theoryof traditional Chinese medicine meridian Qi and blood. This method can effectively detect the physiotherapy effect ofmoxibustion.