• Yongliang Jiang, Hantong Hu, Xiaoyu Li, Xiaofen He, Xiaomei Shao, Jiali Lou, Yajun Zhang, Yuanyuan Wu, and Jianqiao Fang.
• aDepartment of Neurobiology and Acupuncture Research, The Third Clinical Medical College, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Key Laboratory of Acupuncture and Neurology of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou bThe Third Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, China.
• Medicine (Baltimore). 2020 Jul 24; 99 (30): e21302.

IntroductionBy detecting the metabolic difference of the Heart and Lung meridians, the present study aims to investigate the specificity of different meridians and verify whether functional near infrared spectroscopy is validated as an add-on technique to assist diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).Methods And AnalysisThe Lung and Heart meridians are chosen as the target for comparison; accordingly, 120 eligible participants will be included and divided into the COPD group, healthy control group, and healthy intervention group. Functional near infrared spectroscopy will be adopted to measure the metabolic characteristics of the Heart and Lung meridians. On one hand, the specificity of the meridian-visceral association will be investigated by comparing the metabolic difference in the Heart and Lung meridians between the healthy control group and COPD group. On the other hand, the specificity of site-to-site association will be determined by comparing the metabolic change between the 2 meridians that induced by moxibustion in the Heart meridian and Lung meridian, respectively, in the healthy control group. The primary outcome will be regional oxygen saturation of corresponding regions along the Heart and Lung meridians.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT04046666.

39 keywords...

hide…