biologia - Studia

Ş.-C. MIRESCU,. L. CIOBANU, V. ANDREICA, C.-L. ROŞIORU
Materials and methods
Source points localization. According to the Chinese traditional medicine,
there are 12 meridians along the body, each corresponding to an organ or system
(Dumitrescu and Constantin, 1977). Each meridian has its source (or Yuan) point
(Popa, 2000). All these points are located equally on the hands and on the feet.
Many early researches tried to find out the morphological and functional
substrate of acupuncture meridians and points, especially the source points (Jaggar
and Robinson, 2001). Histological sections and imagistic methods did not prove to
be useful in identifying meridians. Electrical studies were performed and revealed
that there were points on the body in which the electrical resistance was clearly
modified compared to the electrical resistances of the nearby skin. These points
resembled the meridians from the Chinese traditional meridians. The electrical
resistance was found to be tenfold lower than in other extra-meridian points. Electrical
potential measurements were also performed and demonstrated that the voltage was
slightly increased in these points. A low electrical resistance, corroborated with
higher electrical potential in these points led the researchers to the conclusion that
these points are the energetic batteries of the human body (Van der Valk and
Groen, 1952). Further researches were based on these conclusions (Zimlichman et
al., 2005; Lurie et al., 2007).
The instrumentation. A four arms Wheatstone bridge of our own
manufacturing was used for measurements (Fig. 1.). The reference electrode was
taped on the back of the left hand and the 12 measurement electrodes were taped to
the corresponding source points (six on the hand and six on the foot). For
commuting between the points, a 12 positions rotary switch was used. The bridge
was connected to a 6 V power source and the output was connected to a precision
voltmeter. By adjusting the voltmeter to zero using the potentiometer included in
the circuit, the electrical resistance between the electrodes was displayed. This
cycle was repeated 12 times for each patient.
The patients. The study was performed on 17 patients with gastroenterological
and rheumatismal disorders. The measurements were taken at approximately the same
hour of the day, because some studies suggest that the acupunctural response is time
dependant (Şteflea, 1986). Consent was obtained from each patient and from
hospital's director.
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