• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.1-19
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• 2004

Objectives : To understanding biological mechanism of acupuncture therapy, we have proposed a hypothesis. First of all, there exists electric property in meridian and meridian point. Second of all, energy flowing in meridian is related with electric property. Third of all, there is electronic interaction between the operator who performs acupuncture therapy and the receiver who is given acupuncture therapy. Forth of all, acupuncture effects may depend on the electric capacity which is transferred between the operator and the receiver via acupuncture needle. Methods : Under the hypothesis, we studied the effects of electric change in $ST_{37}(+)\;and\;ST_{39}(-)$ generated by Tanchim (彈鍼) manipulation which was stimulated at $ST_{36}$ point. And compared with data on the changes of electric change from the hand of the operator during acupuncture stimulation. Electric charge induced via acupuncture needle from the operator may be important factor that causes the changes of electric change in meridian and acupoint in the receiver. Therefore we investigated the changes of electric charge induced by the operator using Maclab 400 by the following methods. The one was in stable electric circle condition and the other was in unstable electric circle condition. Results : In this experiments, the changes of electric change from the stimulation type of Tanchim manipulation performed in our lab condition in acupuncture therapy was induced at least three factor, one was the difference of bio-potentials between the operator and the receiver of acupuncture therapy, another was the depth of acupuncture insertion from the skin of the receiver, the other was an electromyogram of the receiver. Conclusion : The data imply that the first factor should make a capacitance current when the operator touched the acupuncture needle which was inserted in the receiver. Therefore, the results suggest that capacitance currents stimulus in electronic view may be important factor in acupuncture therapy between the operator and the receiver of acupuncture therapy.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2022

Lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) associated with storage, voiding, and post-micturition reduce quality of life and cause mental health problems. In traditional medicine, Baliao points have been empirically used to treat urinary system diseases. In this review, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) using sacral acupuncture on Baliao points with sham treatment, other remedies, or other acupoints were retrieved from 8 electronic databases up to June 2021. Sixteen RCTs met the inclusion criteria. The quality of the included studies was assessed using a risk-of-bias (ROB) tool. Most of the evaluation indicators used in the included RCTs showed that sacral acupuncture had a significant therapeutic effect compared with the sham control intervention groups, and other remedies. However, all studies using acupoints (other than the Baliao points) as a control intervention had a "high" ROB and only reported secondary processed information, making it difficult to evaluate the efficacy of sacral acupuncture treatment for LUTS. No serious adverse effects were reported for sacral acupuncture, and only a low number of minor side effects were observed. These results suggest that sacral acupuncture could be considered as an alternative to existing treatments, with the added benefit of low cost. Large-scale, long-term RCTs are required in the future.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.315-320
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to investigate reasearch trend of acupuncture treatment on shoulder impingement syndrome. This study investigated the recent studies about acupuncture treatment for shoulder impingement syndrome via searching Korean and foreign electronic databases(Research Information Services, National Digital Science Library, Oriental Medicine Advanced Searching Integated Services, PubMed, China National Knowledge Infrastructure). The search term was searched by combining 'shoulder impingement sydrome', 'subacrominal pain', 'acupuncture', 'needle therapy', and was limited to the articles published from 2005 to 2017. 14 studies were found to be analyzed according to the type of study, the number of cases, the type of treatment, the instruments for assessment and published year. 14 studies were published since 2005, 6 case reports, 8 randomized controlled trials. In the treatment of shoulder impingement syndrome, treatments such as acupuncture, acupotomy, pharmacopuncture, laser acupuncture, combined treatment of exercise and rehabilitation were performed. Visual analogue scale(VAS), range of motion(ROM) and various questionnaires were used as primary assessments. In each study, acupuncture treatment was reported to have a significant effect in the pain, range of motion and disability of shoulder impingement syndrome. In order to ensure objective evidence on acupuncture treatment, large scale case reports and randomized controlled trials should be continued.

• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.36-40
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• 2018

Objectives : Electronic moxibustion was developed to overcome the weakness of conventional moxibution. However, in spite of many benefits, it also can not be entirely free from the concern of burning. This study was performed to investigate the proper treatment time of electronic moxibustion. Methods : Male sprague-Dawley rats weighing about 350 g were used. Animals were anesthetized with sodium pentobarbital and shaved on the abdomen or back. The full charged-electronic moxibustion device was placed on the shaved site and it was observed if there happened any adverse event after treatment. Results : At the temperatures of 41, 43, and $45^{\circ}C$ there was no abnormal sign after moxibustion even in full time. However, at $47^{\circ}C$, the safe treatment time was 3 min. On the other hand, $49^{\circ}C$ produced diverse adverse events even in 1 min. Conclusions : Results of the present study suggest that the safe treatment time of electronic moxibustion is different according to the temperature. The most common adverse effect in this electronic moxibustion was the white spot and it is needed to observe whether there is any adverse event until 48 h after treatment.

• International journal of advanced smart convergence
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.10-13
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• 2014

In oriental medicine, the pulse beats are important signals that may let us know the conditions of one's health and disease. In other words, doctors of oriental medicine can simply analyze pulse waves anywhere and anytime to treat patients without using high-priced medical appliances. However, they are largely subjective in interpreting the pulse rates and hence their reliability is far from being perfect. The current paper aims to solve this problem by using fuzzy inference rules in judging patients' health status and to develop a software kit of intelligent electronic needles.

• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.519-536
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• 2012

Objectives : The purpose of this study is to figure out which acupoints are selected to treat low back pain and attempt to analyze the effectiveness of those acupoints in current clinical trials. Methods : We searched the three electronic databases(PUBMED, RISS, KISS) and manually checked related Korean journals and reference lists up to April 2012. We included randomized controlled trials, clinical controlled trials, and case reports/series using needle type acupuncture( manual acupuncture, electronic acupuncture) to treat low back pain in English and Korean. We investigated the frequency of selected acupoints, change of visual analogue scale of low back pain and statistical significance in each study among trials. Results : We included 37 articles(Domestic 17, International 20) 53 studies(Domestic 28, International 25) in this study. The most frequently adopted acupoints were BL23, BL24, BL25, GB30, BL26, BL60, BL32, BL40, KI3, GV3, ST36 in domestic studies and BL23, BL25, BL40, BL60, GB30, GB34, BL32, BL26 in international studies. There were differential effectiveness of acupoints between domestic and the international studies using statistical significance of visual analog scale for low back pain. Conclusions : These results suggest that both proximal and distal acupoints based on meridian theory were used in clinical trials to treat low back pain. It would be helpful to provide clinical guideline, evaluate the results of clinical trials appropriately, and reveal the effectiveness of acupoints.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.87-96
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• 2011

Objectives : The aim of this study is to review clinical trials using moxibustion on hypertension and to assess their methodology and results. Methods : Electronic literature searches for clinical trials (randomized trial, non-randomized trial, before-after study) of moxibustion were performed in nine electronic databases (four international databases and five Korean databases) and handsearch. English, Korean or Chinese articles were included. Laboratory or animal studies were excluded. Results : A total of twelve studies met the inclusion criteria. Seven randomized controlled trial, three non-randomized trials and two before-after studies were included. Seven studies used direct moxibustion(two are scarring one) and five used indirect one. Five of twelve studies used moxibustion treatment just one time, except for that most frequency was once daily or 2-3 times per week for 1-2 months. Of ten randomized or non-randomized studies, three used antihypertension drug control and another three used waiting list control. Compare to baseline, change of blood pressure after moxibustion treatment was significant in all studies. However, the results of effect in blood pressure between moxibustion and controlled were not consistent. Methodological quality of clinical trials included in this review was low and has risk of bias, especially in blinding of parcitipant. Conclusions : There are little high-quality clinical trials of moxibustion for hypertension. To evaluate the effect of moxibustion, more rigorous trials are warranted. Also, methodology of clinical trials have to be descripted in detail.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.153-164
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• 2015

Objectives: The aim of this study was to collect and analyze studies on acupuncture therapies for treatment of voiding difficulty in stroke patients and to suggest methods of study for acupuncture therapies. Methods: Electronic searches were performed on search sites including NDSL, 국회도서관, RISS4U, DBPIA, KISS, KMBASE, KoreaMed, 한국전통지식포탈, OASIS, Pubmed, CNKI, using the search words ‘중풍’, ‘뇌졸중’, ‘stroke’, ‘배뇨장애’, ‘voiding’, ‘urinary’, ‘incontinence’, ‘retention’, ‘ ’, ‘침치료’, and ‘acupuncture’ as single or combined keywords, from January 1990 to August 2013 with language limitation, Korean, English, Chinese. Also, quality of the studies were evaluated using Jadad score. Results: The searches identified 16 studies for selection and analysis. In the present study, voiding difficulty includes urinary incontinence and urinary retention. The acupuncture points CV4, SP6, and CV3 were the most frequently used. Treatments were most frequently applied daily. The times and terms of acupuncture treatment, were most frequently 30 minutes per treatment for 4 weeks Conclusions: The acupuncture therapies were effective in the treatment of voiding difficulty in stroke patients, but the study of acupuncture therapy as a treatment for this issue in stroke patients needs to be standardized and high-quality study models should be introduced.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.20-31
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• 2021

The objective was to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for patients with rotator cuff diseases. There were 12 electronic databases and 3 trial registries searched up to November 30th, 2019. All randomized trials were eligible, regardless of language, date of publication, or settings. The primary outcomes were pain, shoulder function, and proportion of improved participants assessed within 12 weeks of randomization of the trial. The Cochrane risk of bias for the studies was assessed. Effects sizes were presented as a risk ratio, mean difference, or standardized mean difference with a 95% confidence intervals. Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach was adopted to rate certainty of evidence. Of the 3,686 records screened, 28 randomized trials (2,216 participants) were included in this review. The types of acupuncture included manual acupuncture, dry needling, electroacupuncture, acupotomy, warm needle acupuncture, and fire needle acupuncture. All of the studies had an unclear or high risk of bias related to more than 1 domain. Significant benefits of acupuncture in terms of pain and shoulder function were observed in all comparisons, however, the proportion of improved participants was not described in 2 comparisons. There was substantial heterogeneity among meta-analyzed trials. No serious harm was observed. For primary outcomes, the overall certainty of evidence was very low. There was very low certainty of evidence for the benefits of acupuncture for patients with rotator cuff diseases. The safety of acupuncture remains unclear due to the incompleteness of reporting. Future well-designed randomized trials with transparent reporting are required.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.131-142
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• 2011

Objectives : The primary purpose of this study was to examine the effect of manual acupuncture at the $LI_4$, $ST_{36}$ and $LR_3$ on normal human EEG (Electroencephalogram). And the secondary purpose of this study was to analyze the relationships between the change of EEG wave form using correlation analysis. Methods : 32 channel EEG measurement was carried out in 25 healthy participants (23 males and 2 females). EEG was measured for 21 minutes including 15 minutes of retention time. In this study, power spectrum was used as a measure of complexity. Statistical analysis was performed using Spearman correlation. Results : The results were as follows; 1. In C4, O1, Fz, Pz, Cz, FCz, CP4, FC4, TP7, FT7 among 32 electrodes, ${\delta}$, $\theta$ and ${\beta}$ wave increased during 0-3 time intervals, and especially in case of TP7, FT7 ${\alpha}$ wave spontaneously decreased during 12~15 time intervals in manipulation group. 2. Between $\theta$ and ${\beta}$ wave and $\theta$ and ${\delta}$ wave, there was statistically significant positive correlation in C4, O1, Fz, Pz, Cz, FCz, CP4, FC4, TP7, FT7 according to Spearman correlation analysis. 3. Between ${\alpha}$ and ${\beta}$ wave, there was statistically significant positive correlation in TP7, FT7 according to Spearman correlation analysis. Conclusions : These results suggest that TP7 and FT7 could be typical electrodes representing change of EEG after manipulated acupuncture at the $LI_4$, $ST_{36}$ and $LR_3$. The relationships between the change of EEG wave form appear to have statistically significant positive correlation between $\theta$ and ${\beta}$ wave, $\theta$ and ${\delta}$ wave and ${\alpha}$ and ${\beta}$ wave.