NCT04046588

The Difference in Heat Transport Characteristics of the Heart and Lung Meridians

The Difference in Heat Transport Characteristics of the Heart and Lung Meridians: a Comparative Study of COPD Patients and Healthy Subjects

• Status: Unknown
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 120 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Zhejiang Chinese Medical University · Other Government
• Sex: All
• Age: 35 Years – 75 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Although some important progresses were made in the field of the meridian research, no breakthroughs have been achieved. Besides,there are some problems in meridian researches. Particularly, previous research of meridian phenomenon involved lots of subjective elements and outcomes.Researches that use modern scientific techniques to investigate the biological characteristics of meridian phenomenon are urgently needed. Therefore, this study is designed to assess the heat transport characteristics of meridian phenomenon for the Heart and Lung meridians by using infrared thermography. Thus, the biological characteristics of meridian phenomenon could be presented objectively in a scientific methodology.

Detailed description

This study will include 40 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and 80 healthy adults. Infrared thermal imaging(ITI) examination will be adopted to assess the heat transport characteristics of the Heart and Lung meridians and investigate the specificity for the meridian-visceral correlation and site-to-site correlation between two specific meridians.

Conditions

• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DIAGNOSTIC_TEST	Infrared thermography	A thermal imager (NEC InfRec R450, Avio Infrared Technologies Co., Ltd., Tokyo) will be used to record thermal images. The temperature of corresponding sites on the Heart and Lung meridians will be analyzed.
PROCEDURE	Moxibustion	Two sessions of moxibustion intervention will be performed in the Heart meridian and Lung meridian, respectivey. During moxibustion, the temperature change of relevant sites in the Heart and Lung meridians will be measured by infrared thermal imaging. 1. Intervention in the Heart meridian: moxibustion will be performed above the acupoint HT3 of the Heart meridian 2. Intervention in the Lung meridian: moxibustion will be performed above the acupoint LU5 of the Lung meridian.

Timeline

• Start date: 2019-10-01
• Primary completion: 2020-12-01
• Completion: 2021-12-01
• First posted: 2019-08-06
• Last updated: 2020-03-06

Locations

1 site across 1 country: China