Abstract
Since pain is a subjective sensation, the assessment of pain by a patient can vary tremendously and may even be unreliable. The result of acupuncture depends on the patient’s reporting. This indeed influence an evaluation of the effectiveness of the treatment. Chronic pain tends to manifest as a change of the skin temperature of the affected area. Such a change can be measured as an asymmetry of the temperature patterns of the body by thermography which would, then, provide a reliable objective means to estimate the effectiveness of acupuncture treatments.
Our studies indicated that when pain was alleviated by acupuncture the skin temperature of the afflicted area tended to increase fairly rapidly as demonstrated by thermography. The extent of reduction of pain seemed to correspond quite well to the relative increase of skin temperature. After complete alleviation of pain, the patient’s thermograms would reveal symmetrical patterns. Acupuncture applied to such patients tended to cause no change of their thermographic patterns.
Our investigation included 39 patients with a variety of pain conditions, one pain-free hemiparetic patient and two normal controls. A statistical review will be presented. Selected cases will be reported to illustrate the thermographic changes with acupuncture treatments.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.