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Objective: To observe the meridian-acupoint reactions of foot three yin meridians in primary dysmenorrhea(PD) and secondary dysmenorrhea(SD) patients, so as to summarize the rules of meridian-acupoint reaction and acupoints selection., Methods: Thirty-five patients with PD (PD group), 34 patients with SD (SD group) and 35 healthy subjects (healthy group) were recruited. The compression method was used to examine the lower leg segment of the foot three yin meridians. Positive reactions(palpable skin changes, including cords, nodules, depressions) and tenderness of meridians and acupoints were recorded. The visual analogue scale (VAS) was used to evaluate the tenderness severity of acupoints., Results: Compared with the healthy group, the probability of positive reactions and tenderness in foot three yin meridians were higher in PD and SD groups ( P <0.01, P <0.05). Compared with the PD group, the probability of positive reactions in Spleen and Liver Meridians were higher in the SD group, with higher probability of tenderness in Liver Meridian( P <0.05). The probability of positive reactions and tenderness in the Spleen Meridian of PD and SD groups was significantly higher than that in the Kidney Meridian ( P <0.01), while the probability of tenderness in the Spleen Meridian of the PD group was significantly higher than that in the Liver Meridian ( P <0.05). Positive reactions and tenderness were concentrated at Yinlingquan (SP9), Diji (SP8) and Sanyinjiao (SP6) of Spleen Meridian and Xiguan (LR7) and Ligou (LR5) in Liver Meridian of PD and SD groups. In comparison with the PD group, the probability of positive reactions, tenderness and VAS score of SP8 and LR5 of the SD group were higher ( P <0.05, P <0.01)., Conclusion: The positive reaction occurs most frequently in the Spleen Meridian, followed by the Liver Meridian, and least frequently in the Kidney Meridian. The acupoints with positive reaction are different between PD and SD, which suggests that the Spleen Meridian acupoints should be the main acupoints when treating the two kinds of dysmenorrhea, and acupoints should also be selected according to the meridian and acupoint examination results.

Objective: To observe the clinical effect of herbal cake-partitioned moxibustion combined with Rhinocort spray in the treatment of symptoms, sleep quality and daily life quality of patients with moderate-severe allergic rhinitis(AR)．., Methods: A total of 67 patients with persistent moderate-severe AR were recruited in the present study and randomized into a treatment group ( n ＝35) and a control group ( n ＝32). The patients in the treatment group were treated by herbal cake-partitioned moxibustion (applied to Dazhui [GV14], and bilateral Feishu [BL13], Shenshu [BL23] and Zhiyang [GV9], 3 moxa-cones/time, once every other day) plus Rhinocort spray (once in the morning and evening separately, 256 µg/d), and patients in the control group treated by Rhinocort spray alone (the same to that mentioned above). All the treatments were given for 4 weeks. The therapeutic effect was evaluated with reference to the "Principles and Recommended Schemes for Diagnosis and Treatment of AR" formulated by Otolaryngology Branch of Chinese Medical Association before and after the treatment. The severity of symptoms of AR was assessed by using visual analogue scale (VAS), the life quality of nasal conjunctivitis assessed using "Rhino-conjunctivitis Quality of Life Questionnaire (RQLQ)"， and the sleep quality assessed using "Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI)" before and after the treatment, followed by 3 months' follow-up survey., Results: After the treatment, the VAS and RQLQ scores in both groups and PSQI of the treatment group were significantly decreased in comparison with their own base-line levels of pre-treatment in each group ( P <0.05). The RQLQ and PSQI in the treatment group were substantially lower than those in the control group ( P <0.05). No marked difference was found between the two groups in VAS( P >0.05). Follow-up survey showed that the VAS and RQLQ scores in both groups and PSQI of the treatment group were still significantly lower than those of pre-treatment in each group( P <0.05), and the VAS, RQLQ and PSQI scores of the treatment group were significantly lower than those of the control group( P <0.05). After 4 weeks' treatment, of the 32 and 35 AR patients in the control and treatment groups, 7 and 16 experienced marked improvement, 16 and 14 were effective, and 9 and 5 failed, with the effective rate being 71.9% and 85.7%, respectively. The effective rate of the treatment group was significantly superior to that of the control group ( P <0.05)., Conclusion: Herbal cake-partitioned moxibustion combined with Rhinocort spray has a good therapeutic effect in improving symptoms, sleep and quality of life in patients with persistent moderate-severe AR, which is obviously superior to that of Rhinocort spray alone in improving sleep and quality of life.

Objective: To evaluate the clinical effect of herbal cake-partitioned moxibustion combined with medication in the treatment of moderate and severe persistent allergic rhinitis (PAR) patients of spleen deficiency pattern., Methods: Sixty patients with moderate and severe PAR of spleen deficiency pattern were randomized into medication (Rhinocort) group and herbal cake-partitioned moxibustion combined with medication group (combination group, n =30 cases in each). Medicinal cake-partitioned moxibustion was applied to Yintang (GV 29, for about 20 min), Shenque(CV 8, about 50 min), bilateral Zusanli (ST 36, about 40 min)and Hegu(LI 4, about 40 min)once every other day for successive 8 weeks. All the patients received treatment with Rhinocort nasal spray, 2 jets/day for each nostril (64 µg/jet) for 8 weeks. The patients' conditions (symptoms of nasal sufferings, sleeping, sniffle, eye, emotion, etc.) were assessed by visual analogue scale (VAS) and rhino conjunctivitis quality of life questionnaire (RQLQ, 24 items of 7 aspects, 0-6 points/item), respectively. The spleen deficiency syndrome score was determined according to "Guiding Principles for Clinical Research of New Drugs of Chinese Materia Medica" (2002). The therapeutic effect was assessed by referring to "the Diagnostic and Therapeutic Principles and Recommended Schemes for Allergic Rhinitis" (2004)., Results: Following the treatment, the scores of VAS, RQLQ, spleen deficiency syndrome were significantly decreased on the 4 th and the 8 th week of treatment in both groups in comparison with those of their own individual pre-treatment ( P <0.05, P <0.01). Four weeks' follow-up survey showed that the VAS score and RQLQ score of the combination group were obviously lower than those of the medication groups ( P <0.05), suggesting a better post-effect of moxibustion. Of the two 30 cases in the medication and combination groups, 9 and 9 experienced marked improvement in their symptoms, 16 and 17 were effective, and 5 and 4 ineffective, with the effective rate being 83.3% and 86.7%, respectively. No significant differences were found between the two groups in the VAS and RQLQ scores on the 4 th and 8 th week during treatment and in the effective rate ( P >0.05)., Conclusion: Herbal cake-partitioned moxibustion combined with hormone (Rhinocort) nasal spray is effective in relieving symptoms of moderate and severe PAR patients of spleen deficiency syndrome, and has a better post-effect.

Objective: To observe whether acupuncture of the tender-points of the Spleen Meridian can achieve a better therapeutic effect for primary dysmenorrhea (PD) patients, so as to verify the importance of examining meridian-acupoint reactions in clinical practice., Methods: A total of 72 PD patients were randomly assigned to tender-point group (observation group) and regular acupoint group (control group, n ＝36 in each). For patients of the observation group, the tender-points around San-yinjiao (SP 6), Diji (SP 8) and Yinlingquan (SP 9) were needled, and for those of the control group, the regular SP 6, SP 8 and SP 9 were needled. After " Deqi ", the filiform needles were manipulated with lifting-thrusting reducing technique for about 30 s, repeated once again every 10 min during 30 min's needle retention, and the treatment was conducted once daily for 3 days during every menstrual cycle, continuously for 3 months. The visual analogue scale (VAS) was rated for assessing the pain severity, and the COX menstrual symptom scale (CMSS) consists of 17 items and 5 grades/item (0－4 points) according to the severity of discomfort was rated before and after the treatment., Results: After the treatment, the VAS and CMSS scores on the 1 st days of the 1 st , 2 nd and 3 rd menstrual cycles were significantly decreased in both control and observation groups in comparison with their own individual pre-acupuncture ( P <0.05), suggesting a marked relief of both pain and discomforts after the treatment, and the therapeutic effect of the tender-point needling was significantly superior to that of the regular acupoint needling in relieving pain in the 2 nd and 3 rd menstrual cycles. No significant difference was found between the two groups in the discomfort severity ( P >0.05)., Conclusion: Acupuncture stimulation of the tender points around the SP 6, SP 8 and SP 9 has a stronger analgesic effect relevant to needling the regular acupoints in PD patients.

Objective: To observe the correlation between the referred pain regions of stable angina pectoris (SAP) and the acupoints in coronary heart disease (CHD) patients and to investigate the rule of regional sensitized point distribution in rats., Methods: A total of 1 046 CHD patients with SAP from 8 hospitals in China were recruited in the present study. The tenderness was palpated along the left and right chest, back, shoulder, upper limb, etc. by a specially-assigned researcher in each hospital. Among them, 77 patients accepted pain threshold (PT) measurement by using a hand-held esthesiometer. In animal experiments, 14 SD rats were subjected to occlusion of the left anterior descending branch of the left coronary artery for 4 h for establishing myocardial ischemia (MI) model, and other 4 normal rats were used as the sham-operation control group. Four hours after MI, all the rats accepted tail venous injection of 5% Evans blue (50 mg/kg) for examining the distribution of the blue dye exudation spots at the body surface where the mechanical PT was also detected by a von Frey., Results: In 1 046 CHD patients, 987 (94.36%) were found to have at least one tenderness spot. The tenderness spots were found at the left chest (87.47%), right chest (13.67%), left arm (ulnar side, 41.30%), right upper limb (4.68%), left shoulder back (30.21%), right shoulder back (7.07%), etc., accompanied with rash or pigmentation, subcutaneous induration, cord-like tissue contracture, skin sag, etc. The mechanical PT level was significantly lower at the tenderness spots of the left upper limb than at non-tender points of the right upper limb in CHD patients ( P <0.001). Tenderness and cutaneous abnormal changes in angor pectoris patients distributed mostly on the left chest, back, shoulder and upper limb, and some also on the right. Tender points scattered on, near or outside acupoints. A similar distribution of the blue exudation spots and lower mechanical PT spots were found in MI rats, but not in sham-MI rats., Conclusion: In the case of MI, a regular "referred sensitization" response frequently occurs in the dermatomere area innervated by the corresponding segments (T 1－T 5) in both CHD patients and MI rats, which may be closely associated with the formation of acupoints in ancient China.

The imbalance of autonomic nervous function after myocardial ischemia (MI) accelerates the development of ischemic myocardial injury. The beta-adrenergic receptor (β-AR) and muscarinic acetylcholine receptor (M-AChR) are the main receptor types of the cardiomyocyte and the binding sites of the cardiac sympathetic and parasympathetic transmitters. In the present paper, the authors review recent progress of experimental researches on the mechanisms of acupuncture therapy in the prevention and treatment of MI, mainly focusing on the signaling of β 1 -AR and M 2 -AChR subtypes. Results showed that acupuncture could attenuate the injury of myocardial ischemia via down-regulating the over expression of β 1 -AR and up-regulating the expression of M 2 -AChR protein. Correspondingly, acupuncture intervention could reverse the abnormal expression of the intracellular stimulatory G protein and inhibitory G protein caused by MI, and suppress the activity of cellular adenylate cyclase. In addition, acupuncture could also enhance the activity of nitric oxide synthase and the level of nitric oxide in the ischemic cardiomyocytes, and increase the synthesis of cyclic guanosine monophosphate, ultimately reducing the level of cyclic adenosine 3', 5'monophosphate, and lowering the activity of protein kinase A and the inward flow of Ca 2+ in cardiomyocytes. In this way, the ischemic myocardial injury is improved at last. However, some results of acupuncture intervention are not identical and need being confirmed further by more approaches.

Objective: According to the theory of traditional Chinese medicine about "close association between the lung and the large intestine", the present study was designed to investigate the functional relationship between the Lung and Large Intestine Meridians and the colorectum by using electrophysiological methods., Methods: A total of 40 SD rats were used in the present study. Under anesthesia, the cardiopulmonary branch of the left sympathetic nerve (CPSN) was separated for recording the electrical activities with a pair of platinum wire electrodes. Intra-colorectal pressure was recorded using a water-balloon inserted into the anus and connected to a pressure-transducer for observing rectocolonic pressure changes (mobility). Electroacupuncture (EA) stimulation was applied to bilateral "Taiyuan" (LU 9)- "Jingqu" (LU 8) of the Lung Meridian, "Yangxi" (LI 5)-"Pianli" (LI 6) of the Large Intestine Meridian, and "Shangjuxu" (ST 37)-"Zusanli" (ST 36) of the Stomach Meridian, respectively. Colorectal distension (CRD, visceral pain stimulation, 60 mmHg and 80 mmHg) was performed using an air-balloon for observing its influence on EA stimulation of LU 9- LU 8 induced changes of electrical activities of CPSN., Results: Under anesthesia conditions, no spontaneous electrical activities of the CPSN were found in rats. After EA stimulation (3 times of the threshold intensity) of the bilateral "Taiyuan" (LU 9)- "Jingqu" (LU 8) of the Lung Meridian, and "Yangxi" (LI 5)-"Pianli" (LI 6) of the Large Intestine Meridian, the evoked discharge numbers of the cardiopulmonary sympathetic nerve were (11.26 +/- 2.34) and (10.73 +/- 2.62) spikes, respectively, without significant differences between the two groups (P > 0.05). Compared with pre-stimulation, the colorectal motility (amplitudes of the intra-colorectal pressure waves) was obviously increased following EA stimulation of LU 9-LU 8 of the Lung Meridian, LI 5-LI 6 of the Large Intestine Meridian and "Shangjuxu" (ST 37)-"Zusanli" (ST 36) , Lower-Ho (Sea) acupoints of the Large Intestine Meridian (P < 0.05). After CRD stimulation at 60 mmHg and 80 mmHg, the LU 9- LU 8-stimulation evoked discharge rates of CPSN were reduced by 43.46% and 67.42%, respectively., Conclusion: EA stimulation of LU 9- LU 8 of the Lung Meridian and LI 5-LI 6 of the Large Intestine Meridian can activate discharges of CPSN, and increase the colorectal motility in the rat. CRD stimulation inhibits the activated effect of EA on electrical activities of CPSN. These results show a functional communication or cross-talk between the lung and the colorectum.

Objective: To compare the cumulative analgesic effect of electroacupuncture (EA) stimulation of Sanyinjiao (SP 6), Xuanzhong (GB 39) and non-acupoint for primary dysmenorrhea patients., Methods: A total of 200 patients with primary dysmenorrhea were randomly assigned to Sanyinjiao (SP 6, a dysmenorrheal-relieving related acupoint) group, Xuanzhong (GB 39, an unrelated acupoint) group, non-acupoint group and control group, with 50 cases in each group. The participants were administered with EA (2 Hz/100 Hz, 0.5-1.6 mA) at SP 6, GB 39 and non-acupoint for 30 min, once daily for 3 consecutive days. The intensity of the pain was ranked from 0 (no pain) to 100 (intolerable) using visual analogue scale (VAS) and RSS (Cox retrospective symptom scale) severity rating scores (RSS-COX 2) before and after three interventions., Results: In comparison with the control group, VAS and RSS-COX 2 scores were significantly lower in the SP 36, GB 39 and non-acupoint groups (P < 0.001, P < 0.05), suggesting an alleviation of the pain severity after EA treatment. No significant differences were found among the three treatment groups in both VAS and RSS-COX 2 scores (P > 0.05)., Conclusion: EA stimulation of SP 6, GB 39 and non-acupoint has a good cumulative analgesic effect in patients with primary dysmenorrhea.

In the present paper, the authors review the development of experimental and clinical studies on acupuncture treatment of bronchial asthma in recent 10 years. Regarding clinical studies, results showed that acupuncture could (1) regulate cardiac-pulmonary function; and (2) adjust immune state and relieve inflammatory reactions in bronchial asthma patients. Animal experiments showed that acupuncture could function in (1) improving pulmonary function; (2) reducing accumulation of the peripheral eosinophile granulocytes (EOS), relieving the infiltration of inflammatory cells in the air-passage mucosa and promoting the apoptosis of EOS in the lung and air-passages; (3) down-regulating the expression of air-passage remodeling-related protein insulin growth factor-1; (4) suppressing the secretion of tumor necrosis factor and endothelin; (5) attenuating allergic reaction; (6) regulating neuroendocrine activity; and (7) modulating intracellular second messenger activities. However, rigorous clinical study design is not enough, so that the reliability of the results is limited. In spite of many indicators of animal experiments have been selected, but their correlations are not in close association, resulting in poor complementation and mutual identification of the acquired findings. For this reason, its clinical efficacies need to be researched further according to principles of evidence-based medicine.

The acupoint is one of the basic elements of the acupuncture prescription. Just as thinking over different properties of every Chinese materia medica in a prescription, we should also sufficiently consider the characteristics of each acupoint in a prescription of acupuncture or moxibustion. Chinese materia medica have their own action-tendencies of lifting, lowering, floating and sinking, properties of cold, hot, warm and cool, five flavors of sour, bitter, sweet, acrid and salty, target-meridian distribution, different toxicity and actions, etc. What are the properties of acupoints? The authors of the present paper summarize them by simulating the characters of Chinese materia medica. It is found that acupoints also have functions in regulating lifting, lowering, floating and sinking of Qi, inducing cold and heat effects, producing different needling sensations; and pertain to different meridians (meridian distribution). And acupoint stimulation may produce adverse effects under certain specific conditions, etc. Full understanding of the properties of acupoints is definitely helpful in improving clinical therapeutic effects and shortening therapeutic courses by reasonably selecting and combining related acupoints.