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Medical acupuncture dates back at least five thousand years [19]. Optical methods for imaging and acting on acupuncture points and channels (APC) are now being widely developed. Of all known methods of acting on APC, these methods, especially laser-based methods, conform best to the classical principle do no harm. Skin remains intact, and APC are not heated to high temperature, as in the case of classical zhenjiu therapy [6]. On the other hand, classical methods based on subdividing the human body into individual cuns [1, 5] or modern methods of impedancemetry are not sufficiently effective for locating APC. The impedance value as measured between certain points on the surface of the human body was found to depend on the general state of health of the patient [2]. This can cause significant errors in APC mapping by impedancemetry. The goal of this work was to develop optical methods for imaging APC. The methods are based on experimental, pre-clinical, and laboratory studies. It should be taken into account that the anatomical and physiological concept of APC is not universally recognized, as indicated even in fundamental manuals on reflexotherapy [17]. In this work, we assume that APC is a complicated anatomical and physiological system including nerves, muscles, capillary vessels, and adjacent connective tissue with large numbers of mast cells [4]. This concept is substantiated both by classical [12] and modern reflexotherapy [20]. In particular, it is well known that: 1) action on an acupuncture point (AP) has a systemic effect that quickly manifests itself. The same is true for propagation of nervous pulses and their effect on the central nervous system [20]; 2) in practical reflexotherapy, needles are inserted into the human body to a depth of 0.2-4.5 cm. In the majority of cases (60-65%), needles are inserted to a depth of 1-1.5 cm [19], i.e., into cutaneous and subcutaneous tissues. |
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