The Effect of Acupuncture at Point Neiguan on the Pulse Picture for Patients with Arrhythmia

Objective: This project mainly aims at quantify the pulse and acupuncture signal and investigates the effect of acupuncture at point Neiguan (PC6) on the pulse picture for patients with arrhythmia by using different signal analysis method. Methods: We choose 15 patients with arrhythmia which are led from different sickness in our project. For the practical data collection, the data of the pulse for each patient are recorded three minutes before acupuncture and after acupuncture. In order to compare results, for all the patients, we use the same acupuncture tact (‘bu’) applied on ‘neiguan’ and collect ‘guan’ pulse. Self-designed Pulse picture instrument and acupuncture instrument are used to detect the pulse picture. For these pulse signals, firstly we use one dimension wavelet to reduce the effect of noise on pulse, which includes three steps: 1, separate original signal to approximations and details in proper level; 2, select threshold method to eliminate details coefficients between thresholds;3, reconstruct pulse signals. In the following, we use auto-relativity function method to determine time delay in the process of reconstructing phase portrait for each patient’s pulse signal. The phase portrait of pulse signal supports a qualitative tool to find out the differences before and after acupuncture. In order to get quantitative results, coarse grained method is used for frequency analysis to obtain the power spectrum density. The ratio of the magnitude of the vice frequency to that of the main frequency is taken as a characteristic parameter. The parameter before acupuncture is compared with that after acupuncture. Results: From the qualitative prospect, we can find the shape of phase portrait curve changes dramatically after acupuncture. From the quantitative prospect, we find that the characteristic parameter increases remarkably (P<0.05) Conclusion: Our project describes the effect of acupuncture on pulse from the qualitative prospect and the quantitative prospect respectively. These results have positive effects on the application of acupuncture in clinic.