Abstract
Electrical impedance measurement methods have been proposed to study a large number of physiological events, especially due to the simplicity, low-cost and noninvasiveness of the technique.
Acupuncture (Biological active points: BAPs) research has since become a very broad active area both in Asia and the West. These points are not uniformly distributed across all parts of the human skin and investigated in various ways for the purpose of scientifically establishing their existence.
This paper describes a system to measure the characteristic frequency and reactance of BAPs and surrounding skin. The method uses the three-electrode technique with a constant sinusoidal current.
The measurements were taken at 50 different frequencies between 1 Hz to 1 kHz. The input peak current value was set to below 5 µA maximum in order to reduce the electrical stimulus as much as possible. We show the dependence of the reactance on frequency, measured at PC-3, PC-4, PC-7 and the surroundings skin.
The BAPs measuring method is well illustrated by a simple model of an equivalent electrical circuit that correlates well with experimental results. The values of the chosen components were determined to fit the equivalent circuit using the simulation.
A new BAPs measurement system has the superior characteristics of noninvasiveness measurement and easy operation. The characteristic frequencies of BAPs are 20–30 Hz higher than that of the surrounding skin, and the reactances are about 45–50 KΩ smaller than that of the surrounding skin. The reactance and characteristic frequency of BAPs and surrounding skins can be observed simultaneously, which enables objective analysis. This system has the advantage of being able to instantaneously observe the characteristic frequency and reactance of BAPs.
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© 2007 International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering
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Kim, M.S., Kim, B., Lim, G. (2007). Electrical characteristics of Human Skin of Including at Biological Active Points using Noninvasive measurement method. In: Magjarevic, R., Nagel, J.H. (eds) World Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering 2006. IFMBE Proceedings, vol 14. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-36841-0_87
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-36841-0_87
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-36839-7
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