System for simultaneous measurements of bilaterally symmetrical acupoints multifrequency impedances

Mi-Yong Su,¹ Yong-Hong Tan,² Zi-Min Wang,³ Cai-Jun Gan,³ Shou-Hong Chen<sup>3

1</sup>School of Electronic Engineering, Xidian University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, People's Republic of China; ²College of Information, Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China; ³School of Electronic Engineering and Automation, Guilin University of Electronic Technology, Guilin, Guangxi, People's Republic of China

Abstract: Devices which can obtain comparable bilaterally symmetrical acupoints (BSA) multifrequency impedances (MFI) are often needed in the detection of the energy balance states of acupoints in traditional Chinese medicine. To satisfy these needs, a two-channel impedance measurement system has been introduced which is capable of accurately and simultaneously measuring BSA MFI. The system includes a set of five electrodes, two of which are injected with exciting current signal to synchronously and equally excite BSA; the other three electrodes are used as sensors to simultaneously sense the response signal from both sides. The system also includes a PC-based time-domain signal testing platform with arbitrary current waveform generation and three channels (one exciting current and two response voltages) simultaneously sampling, and a set of MFI simultaneously unbiased computing algorithms based on special odd multisine current signal input. Preliminary validating experiments suggest that the system allows accurate and synchronous measurement of BSA MFI at least in the frequency range of 10 Hz to 60 kHz, and the obtained BSA MFI are well comparable.

Keywords: acupuncture, meridians, Qi, balance, two-channel