DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF A NOVEL FOUR-ELECTRODE DEVICE SYSTEM FOR MONITORING SKIN IMPEDANCE

Authors

  • Rezaei Shima
  • Zhu Jiang
  • She Yan Fen
  • Afzal-Aghayi Monnavar
  • Khorsand Ali

Keywords:

Acupuncture, Meridian, Acupoints, Electrical skin impedance, Chinese medicine.

Abstract

Qi, meridians, and acupoints are important issues in Chinese medicine. One of the theories claims that acupuncture points and meridians have unique electrical properties. The associations between acupuncture points or meridians and special electrical properties are still under debate. In the current study, we introduced and explained a device for this kind of research and evaluated the reliability of this device as well as effects of pressure, cleaning the skin by alcohol and exfoliation on electrical skin measurements. Fifteen subjects (10 female, 5 male) were recruited to participate in the study. An impedance meter based on the four-electrode technique was designed and fabricated specifically for this study. The effects of pressure, cleaning of the skin by alcohol, and exfoliation on electrical skin impedance were evaluated separately. The device repeatability was also evaluated 30 times in a 30 minutes period. Scale weight up to 200 grams, cleaning the skin with alcohol, and exfoliation didn't affect the performance of this device. The device performance didn’t change significantly during the 30 minutes measurement either. The new system we evaluated can be a reliable tool for researches on electrical skin impedance in acupuncture, as its performance is fairly stable even in the presence of various confounding factors such as various pressures on the probe, cleaning the skin with alcohol and exfoliation.

Author Biography

Khorsand Ali

The School of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China.

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Published

2012-05-21

How to Cite

Shima, R., Jiang, Z., Fen, S. Y., Monnavar, A.-A., & Ali, K. (2012). DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF A NOVEL FOUR-ELECTRODE DEVICE SYSTEM FOR MONITORING SKIN IMPEDANCE. African Journal of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicines, 9(4), 599–606. Retrieved from https://athmsi.org/journals/index.php/ajtcam/article/view/1559

Issue

Section

Research Papers