• The Journal of Korean Obstetrics and Gynecology
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.191-202
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• 2009

Purpose: This research is to investigate the needling Depth for Deqi based onone's age, weight, and the level of obesity and the different Deqi sensation in Chung-wan and Kwan-wan. Methods: We took a research on Deqi for the 123 patients who visited a local Korean Medicine clinic at random. The variants were the age, the weight, thetotal fat rate, the waist-hip rate, BMI, the weight size, and the Sasang constitution. Result: Older patients need more depth of Deqi in Chung-wan and Kwan-wan compared to the younger ones. The higher the level of obesity(weight, total body fat rate, the waist-hip rate, BMI) goes up, the more Deqi in Chung-wan and Kwan-wan goes deeply. As the level of obesity goes down in the order of Taeeum-in, Soyang-in, Soeum-in, the depth of Deqi also decreases in Chung-wan and Kwan-wan. Deqi in Chung-wan is the feeling of pressure around the acu-point, and Deqi in Kwan-wan is the feeling that it spreads out to the upper, lower, the right, and the left side of the acu-point. Conclusion: In case of Needling Depth for Deqi on Chung-wan and Kwan-wan, that increases or decreases as the age, the level of obesity(the physique), and the Sasang constitution changes.

• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.290-299
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• 2012

Objectives : 'Obtaining qi(deqi)' is a sensation experienced by a patient or an acupuncturist during acupuncture treatment, and it is considered to be an important factor in acupuncture treatment. However, previous studies reported conflicting results about the relationship between 'obtaining qi(deqi)' sensation and the effect of acupuncture treatment. Also, most of the previous studies investigating 'obtaining qi(deqi)' and the acupuncture effect, dealt with the analgesic effect of acupuncture. The objective of this study was to analyze the relation between the 'obtaining qi(deqi)' and the anti-itching effect of acupuncture treatment. Methods : Twenty one healthy subjects participated in this study. At the first visit, itch was induced to all subjects using intradermal injection of histamine on the lower arm. At the second visit, acupuncture treatment was applied using LI11 and 'obtaining qi(deqi)' was assessed. After acupuncture treatment, itch was induced again, and itch VAS and skin flare were assessed. Results: At the 6,8,10 minutes after histamine injection, the change of itch VAS between before and after acupuncture treatment was significant. Among 'obtaining qi(deqi)', subjects reported that 'dull ache', 'pricking', 'heavy' were most strong. Total score of 'obtaining qi(deqi)' sensation was not related to the change of itch VAS or skin flare. The 'electric shock' sensation is related to the change of itch VAS, and 'bruised' and 'heavy' sensations were related to the change of skin flare. Conclusions : Total 'obtaining qi(deqi)' is not related to the anti-itching effect of acupuncture, but several sensations showed relationship with the effect of acupuncture on itch severity and skin flare. Further researches based on various symptoms or acupuncture points, are needed.

• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.91-96
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• 2022

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to characterize the stimulation intensity in acupuncture manipulation techniques for tonification and sedation therapy. Methods : To describe the level of stimulation used in acupuncture manipulation techniques for tonification and sedation therapy, we reviewed the acupuncture manipulation techniques described in classical medical textbooks. Results : Based on the patients' conditions and pattern identification, acupuncture manipulation strategies for tonification and sedation therapy were chosen. For example, the excess condition was treated with sedative therapy, and the deficiency condition was treated with tonification therapy. For tonification therapy, weak to modest stimulation was applied in acupuncture manipulation techniques, whereas intense stimulation was applied for sedative therapy. Even though the intensity of acupuncture stimulation was chosen based on the clinical examination, deqi sensation is a crucial component of acupuncture treatment, and during acupuncture practice, the practitioner should choose the right intensity of acupuncture stimulation based on deqi response in each patient. Conclusions : We concluded that the tonifying and sedative effects of acupuncture treatment are related to the stimulation intensity of acupuncture manipulation techniques. For individualized medicine, the right amount of acupuncture stimulation should be administered based on the patients' conditions and responses, such as deqi responses.

• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.175-185
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• 2008

Objective : Acupuncture (from the Latin acus, "needle," and pungere, "to prick") is a technique of inserting and manipulating fine needles at specific points on the body. As a placebo acupuncture needle device was developed based on the visual impact of needling, it has been raised that it is useful only when acupuncture points and needling are visible to subjects. To examine the visual factor of the placebo acupuncture, the present study was aimed to compare the blinding index of the verum and placebo acupuncture between masked and unmasked situation. Methods : Thirty-six patients were randomly alloted to be stimulated with a verum or placebo acupuncture in a cross-over design. They were asked to guess a right answer whether they were stimulated with the verum or placebo acupuncture at LI4 in an unmasked or masked situation. The penetrating, pain, and deqi sensations were also measured after the stimulation using modified visual analogue scale. Results : The correct answer rate of the placebo acupuncture was 22.2% and 16.7% in an unmasked and masked situation, respectively (P>0.767). The blinding index of the placebo acupuncture was -0.56 (95%CI -0.84 to -0.27) and -0.67 (95%CI -0.91 to -0.42) in an unmasked and masked situation, respectively. The penetrating and deqi sensation of the verum acupuncture were significantly higher than those of the placebo acupuncture in both unmasked and masked situation. The pain sensation of the verum acupuncture was significantly higher than that of the placebo acupuncture in masked situation, but not in unmasked situation. Conclusion : Blinding of the placebo acupuncture was successful both in the unmasked and masked situation. These finding indicate that visual factor might not play a critical role in blinding of the placebo needle. We suggest that placebo needle would be also useful in a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan even when the subject could not see the placebo needle.

• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.63-67
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• 2022

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to investigate the needling depth of five-phase acupoints and discuss the association with the depth of meridian qi. Methods : DongUiBoGam was used to determine the depth of five-phase acupoints. The depth of needling at 60 five-phase acupoints was compared between well, spring, stream, river, and sea acupoints. Results : The proximal part of the extremities had deeper needling depth than the distal part of the extremities. The targeted deqi sensation can be related to the needling depth. Conclusions : The depth of the meridian qi is related to the distinct patterns of needling depth of five-phase acupoints.

• Journal of Korean Medical classics
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.15-25
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• 2011

The acupuncture procedures in Hwangjenaekyung (黃帝內經) was different to modern ones in many aspects. Especially, the role of pulse diagnosis in acupuncture was totally different and the pulse diagnosis was essential part in acupuncture therapy in Hwangjenaekyung era. We found four noteworthy features on the pulse diagnosis before and after acupuncture in Hwangjenaekyung : (1) Pulse diagnosis was a mandatory process in acupuncture (2) Doctors who used pulse diagnosis in 12 meridians (十二經脈遍診脈法), pulse diagnosis in 9 points of 3 body parts (三部九候脈法), and comparative pulse diagnosis between radial artery and carotid artery (人迎寸口對比脈法) followed the former rule ((1)). (3) The major pulse features to detect before and after acupuncture were conversion between the vacuous pulse (虛脈) and the replete pulse (實脈), and conversion between slippery pulse (滑脈) and rough pulse (澁脈). (4) Deukki (得氣, Deqi) was synonym of Kiji (氣至), and it referred to the changes of arterial pulse, not the sensation followed by acupuncture manipulation.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.213-232
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• 2000

Hemiplegic shoulder pain(HSP) is one of the most frequent and difficult problems affecting poststroke hemiplegic patients. Honeybee venom acupuncture therapy(BVAT) is known for its pain relieving effects in arthralgia. To evaluate the effectiveness of BVAT on HSP, 24 patients were sequential1y allocated into BVA T treatment group and control group and monitored for 4 weeks at time interval of initial(T0), 1 week(T1), 2 weeks(T2) and 4 weeks(T4). In treatment group, 1:10000 honeybee venom solution 0.2㎖ was injected into acupoint(s) following Deqi three times a week. Kyonu(LI15) was used in the first week. Thereafter Kyonu(LI15) and Nosu(SI10) were used. Visual analogue scale of pain severity showed significant decrease in treatment group compared to control group at T2 and T4 evaluation. Painless passive range of motion of shoulder external rotation showed significant increase in treatment group compared to control group at T4 evaluation. Fugl-Meyer Motor Assessment of upper limb motor function and Modified Ashworth scale of the spasticity of upper limb showed no difference between two groups. BVAT showed as an effective therapy in HSP and further extensive clinical studies are expected.

• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.93-108
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• 2012

Objectives : This study aims to review randomized controlled trials on acupuncture for shoulder pain according to Jadad Scale and revised STRICTA. Methods : Seven electronic databases including PUBMED, SCOPUS, RISS were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCT) of acupuncture for shoulder pain. Results : 16 RCTs were included: 14 were published in English and 2 were published in Korean. According to Jadad scale, 15 RCTs had high quality. However, most of the studies could not meet the double blindness criteria. All RCTs meet 12.9 items on average in STRICTA. Conclusions : This systematic review shows four conclusions as follows. Traditional Chinese Medicine is often used in style of acupuncture. Spots of LI15, TE14, GB21 and LI11, stainless steel needle($0.3mm{\times}40mm$), 20 retention time, manual stimulation, $Deqi$, and 2 times a week treatment (total 12) are often used. Double-blinded clinical trials needs to be conducted. It is controversial to use minimal acupunctures on controlled groups of RCTs on acupuncture for shoulder pain. Description about practitioner's background needs clarifying.

• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.23-36
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• 2012

Objectives : This study was conducted to investigate effective treatment point selection method using oppressive pain in acupoints as elementary attempt for standard methodology of clinical acupuncture studies. Methods : Twenty seven subjects with hypertension or within prehypertension category - systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP) over 120/80mmHg - were divided into two groups, oppressive pain point treatment group and oppressive painless point treatment group. In oppressive pain point treatment group, single point acupuncture (SPA) was conducted for 16 sessions during 8 weeks on most oppressive painful point among 6 selected acupuncture points used in previous trials and clinic. As a SPA intervention, 15 minutes with deqi sensation- elevating manipulation was conducted on the treatment acupoint. Same process was conducted in oppressive painless point treatment group on most oppressive painless point with subject blinding. Results : Significant reduction was observed in both systolic and diastolic BP after short time intervention (15.5/8.8 mmHg, 10.7/7.1 mmHg, P<0.05, respectively at 1 week) and maintained for 8 weeks intervention period in all groups (12.8/8.0 mmHg, 19.4/12.6 mmHg, P<0.05, respectively). No significant difference of BP change between oppressive pain point treatment group (N=10) and oppressive painless point treatment group (N=9) was observed during 8 weeks study period. Conclusions : SPA treatment as used in this pilot study was effective for lowering BP in mild hypertensive population, but oppressive pain in acupoint had no effect on treatment. This present result suggests the possibility of SPA for hypertension treatment regardless of oppressive pain.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.1140-1151
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• 2023

Fully Ceramic Microencapsulated (FCM) fuel is emerging advanced fuel material for the future nuclear reactors. The fuel pellet in the FCM fuel is composed of matrix and a large number of TRistructural-ISOtopic (TRISO) fuel particles which are randomly dispersed in the SiC matrix. The minimum layer thickness in a TRISO fuel particle is on the order of 10^-5 m, and the length of the FCM pellet is on the order of 10^-2 m. Hence, the heat transfer in the FCM pellet is a multi-scale phenomenon. In this study, three multi-scale heat conduction models including the Multi-region Layered (ML) model, Multi-region Non-layered (MN) model and Homogeneous model for FCM pellet were constructed. In the ML model, the random distributed TRISO fuel particles and coating layers are completely built. While the TRISO fuel particles with coating layers are homogenized in the MN model and the whole fuel pellet is taken as the homogenous material in the Homogeneous model. Taking the results by the ML model as the benchmark, the abilities of the MN model and Homogenous model to predict the maximum and average temperature were discussed. It was found that the MN model and the Homogenous model greatly underestimate the temperature of TRISO fuel particles. The reason is mainly that the conventional equivalent thermal conductivity (ETC) models do not take the internal heat source into account and are not suitable for the TRISO fuel particle. Then the improved ETCs considering internal heat source were derived. With the improved ETCs, the MN model is able to capture the peak temperature as well as the average temperature at a wide range of the linear powers (165 W/cm~ 415 W/cm) and the packing fractions (20%-50%). With the improved ETCs, the Homogenous model is better to predict the average temperature at different linear powers and packing fractions, and able to predict the peak temperature at high packing fractions (45%-50%).