Abstract
Background and Purpose : There have been many studys about the relationship between the meridians and the acupoints of the twelve meridians, but no study about the extra points. To verify Dong-Shi acupoints, a kind of extra points, we studied the effects on the thermal changes of the ankle region following acupuncture on the Wu-Hu. Object and Methods : This study was researched into clinical statistics for 45 healthy normal students. The object was divided into two groups. One was the control group and the other was the acupuncture group. The acupuncture group was divided into two groups ; ACU-up : The class of ascent thermal change among acupuncture group. ACU-dn : The class of descent thermal change among acupuncture group. First, in the control group, we took a picture at the ankle region(BL60, BL62, GB40, ST41) without any stimulation with the Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging System and did after 10 minutes respectively. Second, in the acupuncture group, we took a picture without any stimulation and then acupuncture on Wu-Hu and took a picture after 10 minutes in the same way respectively. Results : 1. In the control group, average thermal change of BL60, BL62, GB40 and ST41 was decreased(about $0.2^{\circ}C$) after 10 minutes. 2. The skin temperature of all measured parts was significantly lower in the ACU-dn group after 10 minutes. 3. There were no significant differences of thermal change between the control and the acupuncture group, between the control and ACU-up group after 10 minutes. Conclusion : This result indicated that the acupuncture on the Wu-Hu was effective at the ankle region. And so the more study is needed continuously.