• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.68-76
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• 2003

Objective : In the pain control, Bee Venom Acupuncture therapy is highly effective but cause allergic side-effects frequently. This study was performed to compare Bee Venom(BV) with BV Partner(BVP) in decreasing side-effects of BV. Methods : BV partner(BVP) which dilutes the Morus bombycis Koiduzumi Herbal Acupuncture was developed to decrease the side effects of the Bee Venom. We used D.I.T.I. to verify the effectiveness of BVP in decreasing side-effect of BV. We injected BV to Group I (n=18) at 4 points of body [Fengmen(風門 : B12), Feishu(肺兪 : B13), Fufen(附分 : B41), Pohu(魄戶 : B42)], and BVP to group II (N=18) at the same points. We observed the chages of temperature at beginning, 5 minutes, 1 hour, 1 day, 2days and 7days after injection. Results : The following results were obtained; 1. The difference of temperature had been continued until 2days in BV group, but 1day in BVP group. 2. The difference of temperature was significantly greater than time at 1hour in BV and at 5 minutes in BVP. 3. Other side-effects(the local pain, redness, angioedema and pruritus) were less appeared in BVP than BV group, too.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.173-182
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• 2014

Objectives : There are few reports on treatment of thoracic outlet syndrome in the field of traditional Korean medicine. The aim of this study is to report a case of a 29-year-old male patient diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome, whose symptoms were relieved after 3-week integrated Korean medical treatment. Methods : A patient diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome was admitted into the Korean medicine hospital. The patient had left shoulder pain and left arm numbness. The pain was worse if it had become cold. The patient was treated using Sa-am acupuncture(Daejangseunggyeok), sweet bee venom acupuncture, herbal medicine and other treatment including physical therapy from September 7th to 27th of 2012. Improvement of the patient's symptoms was evaluated by verbal numerical rating scale(VNRS), skin surface temperature difference between the left and right symmetric part of digital infrared thermographic image(DITI). Results : After 3-weeks of treatment, VNRS decreased and skin surface temperature difference between the left and right symmetric part of DITI showed moderate improvement. Conclusions : The results suggest that integrated Korean medical treatment may affect to reduce the symptoms of thoracic outlet syndrome. Further study is needed to evaluate the importance of this report.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.37-45
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• 2015

Objectives : The main aim of this study is to evaluate changes in the microbiological safety of pharmacopuncture exposed to room temperature for an elapsed period of time. Methods : The four most frequently used pharmacopuncture products were stored in syringes at room temperature at three different hospitals for 24 hours and 48 hours respectively, and they were compared with pharmacopuncture products stored in vials through a sterility and microbial limited test. Results : Storage forms and duration of exposure to room temperature did not show significant difference in bacterial or fungal contamination, which was confirmed by the sterility and microbial limited test. Conclusions : Pharmacopuncture products stored in syringes at room temperature for 24 hours and 48 hours demonstrated their safety in terms of lack of microbiological contamination.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.49 no.10
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• pp.194-201
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• 2012

Moxibustion is utilized not only to cure disease but also to increase immunity. However, it may lead to undesired effects including severe pains(blisters and burns) because of the difficulty of controlling heat intensity. To overcome these problems we developed the RF heat stimulation system which can control stimulus. Also, we developed the RF stimulation protocol for effective heat transfer in subcutaneous tissue of rabbit. RF stimulator consists of a medical RF capacitive heating device, isolation probe, isolation plate, negative pressure control part and temperature measurement part. For the designed stimulus protocol, we measured the temperature distribution on epidermis and in subcutaneous(5mm, 10mm) area of rabbit during moxibustion. A stimulation protocol was designed by controlling the ON/OFF duty ratio, repeating number, and energy of applied pulse to get the temperature distribution similar with that by moxibustion. In results, the correlation coefficients between temperature distribution by moxibustion and that of stimulator were 95% and 91% from 5mm and 10mm thick respectively. However, temperature distribution on epidermis by stimulator was remarkably lower than that of the moxibustion. Finally, the RF stimulation system showed that it can not only transfer effectively heat similar with moxibustion to the subcutaneous area, but also the influence by unwanted side effects can be minimized.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.50-54
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• 2014

Objectives: Digital infrared thermographic imaging (DITI) has been used widely for various inflammatory diseases, circulatory diseases, skin diseases, musculoskeletal diseases and cancers. In cases of ligament injury, obviously the temperature of the damaged area increases due to local inflammation; however, whether the temperature also increases due to DITI has not been determined. The purpose of the present study was to identify whether or not the changes of temperature in patient's with medial collateral ligament injury were really due to infrared thermography and to determine the applicability of DITI for assessing ligament injuries. Methods: Twenty patient's who underwent DITI for a medial collateral ligament injury from September 2012 to June 2014 were included in the current study. The thermographic images from the patient's knees were divided to cover seven sub-areas: the middle of the patella, and the inferomedial, the inferolateral, the superomedial, the superolateral, the medial, and the lateral regions of patella. The temperatures of the seven regions were measured, and the temperature differences between affected and unaffected regions were analyzed by using the Wilcoxon signed rank test. Results: The 20 patient's were composed of 14 women (70%) and 6 men (30%), with a mean age of $62.15{\pm}15.71$ (mean${\pm}$standard deviation (SD)) years. The temperature of the affected side, which included the middle of the patella, and the inferomedial, the superomedial, the superolateral, and the medial regions, showed a significant increase compared to that of the unaffected side (P < 0.05). The inferolateral and the lateral regions showed no significant changes. Conclusion: Our study results suggest that DITI can show temperature changes if a patient has a ligament injury and that it can be applied in the evaluation of a medial collateral ligament injury.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.131-139
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• 2019

Background: This study aimed to investigate the correlation between heat transmission and intervention factors for warm acupuncture (such as features of acupuncture material and moxa, the treatment method, and clinical symptoms). Methods: Korean, English, Chinese and Japanese databases were analysed. Experimental studies that explored the association between thermal stimulation delivery and warm acupuncture intervention factors were included. The peak temperature, time to reach the peak temperature, and time of the effective stimulus, were set as the major parameters and analysed. Results: A total of 12 studies were included. Two studies were associated with the acupuncture needle material, 4 studies associated with the moxa mass, 1 study associated with the moxa density, 2 studies associated with the location of ignition, and 1 study associated with treatment environment were reviewed. The reporting quality of the 12 studies was low. Conclusion: This study provided limited information because of the heterogeneity of materials and parameters depending on each experiment. Further studies should clarify the correlation between heat transmission and intervention factors for warm acupuncture.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.251-257
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• 2005

Objectives : This is a clinical report about palmar hyperhidrosis patients. Palmar hyperhidrosis, excessive sweating of the hands, can be caused by emotional tension or anxiety rather than exercise or high temperature. Methods : The patient was treated by only needle acupuncture treatment or needle acupuncture and Oriental medicine treatment together. Results : As using these treatments, all patients decreased in sweating of hands notably. And further, all patients had no side effects. Conclusion : The results suggest that Oriental medicine treatment have an useful effect on palmar hyperhidrosis patient's treatment and recovery.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.229-236
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• 2015

Objectives : The purpose of this study is to report the clinical effect of Korean medical treatment on a spinal cord tumor. Methods : We treated a patient who was diagnosed with a spinal cord tumor. We used acupuncture, bee venom pharmacopuncture, herbal medicine, moxibustion and physical therapy; the patient was evaluated using the visual analogue scale(VAS) and given an International Standards for Neurological Classification of Spinal Cord Injury(ISNCSCI) score. Results : VAS decreased and ISNCSCI score increased meaningfully. Conclusions : According to these results, this report possibly suggests that Korean medical treatment could be a helpful choice for treating a spinal cord tumor.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.325-330
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• 2021

In this Case Report, a patient with Buerger's disease who had a leg amputation below his lower right knee and a vascular bypass of right leg, developed a wound caused by his prosthetic leg and subjective discomfort. The patient received skin flap surgery but the wound did not heal properly. He was admitted to the Korean Medicine Hospital where his wound, right leg coldness, and phantom pain were treated with combined Korean medicine. The patient was hospitalized again where he underwent micro-drilling surgery. The patient was re-admitted to the Korean Medicine Hospital where he received combined Korean medicine treatment (CKMT) and carbon arc light treatment (CALT) for his wound, leg coldness, stiffness, and hypoplasia. The temperature of his right leg increased, the numeric rating scale score for assessing pain fell from 5 to 1.5, and subjective discomfort was reduced (< 20%) suggesting this may be an effective treatment.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.1-14
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• 2006

Objectives : We implemented the Moxa-Extract Moxibustion Method in order to improve the conventional moxibustion therapy. This method is aimed to eliminate burning wounds and smoke, which are the defects of conventional moxibustion therapy. And we performed to verify the efficiency by comparing the Moxa-Extract Moxibustion Method with the conventional Indirect Moxibustion Method. We measured the body heat and the lasting time of blood circulation improveent using thermography. We implemented the Moxa-Extract Moxibustion Method in order to improve the conventional moxibustion therapy. This method is aimed to eliminate burning wounds and smoke, which are the defects of conventional moxibustion therapy. And we performed to verify the efficiency by comparing the Moxa-Extract Moxibustion Method with the conventional Indirect Moxibustion Method. We measured the body heat and the lasting time of blood circulation improvement using thermography. Methods : The moxibustion therapy has two kinds of effects: The formers are pharmacological effects of the Moxa's vasodilators and antioxidants. The latters are thermal effects which cause improvement of the blood circulation. To remove the demerits without omission of above therapeutic effects, we extracted the vasodilators and antioxidant compounds from the Moxa-CH2Cl2 fraction Moxa-EtOA and composed the moxibustion kit with (Ba0.8 Sr0.2)0.996 Y0.004 TiO2 + 0.5WT SiO2% positive Temperature Coefficients Thermistor. The experimental demonstrations have been made by the stimulating the spot which is CV4(Kwan-Won), CV8(Shin-Guel), CV12(Jung-Wan) acupuncture points of the conception vessel meridian(CV). And stimulating time was one hour. We divided the subjects into 5 groups such as no stimulation group, conventional Indirect Moxibustion group, only Moxa-Extract stimulation group, only heat stimulation group, and Moxa-Extract Moxibustion group. In the different cases, we have measured the body heat in pre-stimulation, just after stimulation, 2 hours after, and 4 hours after. Results : he body heats of the group who were stimulated by the Moxa-Extract Moxibustion method were increased by over the $2^{\circ}C$. And the body heats of the group who were stimulated by the Indirect Moxibustion Method were increased by average the $1^{\circ}C$. We have evaluated that the Moxa-Extract Moxibustion Method is improvement on the Indirect Moxibustion Method by the increasing rate is 200% and increasing time is 150% with the body heat of the abdominal region. Conclusion : We have implemented the Moxa-Extract Moxibustion Method and evaluated the efficiency of the Moxa-Extract Moxibustion Method comparing with the Indirect Moxibustion Method.