Spatial Patterns of the Indications of Acupoints Using Data Mining in Classic Medical Text: A Possible Visualization of the Meridian System

Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Oct 2015

The indications of acupoints are thought to be highly associated with the lines of the meridian systems. The present study used data mining methods to analyze the characteristics of the indications of each acupoint and to visualize the relationships between the acupoints and disease sites in the classic Korean medical text Chimgoogyeongheombang. Using a term frequency-inverse document frequency (tf-idf) scheme, the present study extracted valuable data regarding the indications of each acupoint according to the frequency of the cooccurrences of eight Source points and eighteen disease sites. Furthermore, the spatial patterns of the indications of each acupoint on a body map were visualized according to the tf-idf values. Each acupoint along the different meridians exhibited different constellation patterns at various disease sites. Additionally, the spatial patterns of the indications of each acupoint were highly associated with the route of the corresponding meridian. The present findings demonstrate that the indications of each acupoint were primarily associated with the corresponding meridian system. Furthermore, these findings suggest that the routes of the meridians may have clinical implications in terms of identifying the constellations of the indications of acupoints.

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Spatial Patterns of the Indications of Acupoints Using Data Mining in Classic Medical Text: A Possible Visualization of the Meridian System

Spatial Patterns of the Indications of Acupoints Using Data Mining in Classic Medical Text: A Possible Visualization of the Meridian System Won-Mo Jung,1 Taehyung Lee,1,2 In-Seon Lee,1 Sanghyun Kim,3 Hyunchul Jang,3 Song-Yi Kim,1 Hi-Joon Park,1 and Younbyoung Chae1 1Acupuncture and Meridian Science Research Center, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 02447, Republic of Korea 2Department of Medical History, College of Korean Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 02447, Republic of Korea 3Mibyeong Research Center, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, Daejeon 34054, Republic of Korea Received 28 April 2015; Revised 1 September 2015; Accepted 2 September 2015 Academic Editor: Ciara Hughes Copyright © 2015 Won-Mo Jung et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract The indications of acupoints are thought to be highly associated with the lines of the meridian systems. The present study used data mining methods to analyze the characteristics of the indications of each acupoint and to visualize the relationships between the acupoints and disease sites in the classic Korean medical text Chimgoogyeongheombang. Using a term frequency-inverse document frequency (tf-idf) scheme, the present study extracted valuable data regarding the indications of each acupoint according to the frequency of the cooccurrences of eight Source points and eighteen disease sites. Furthermore, the spatial patterns of the indications of each acupoint on a body map were visualized according to the tf-idf values. Each acupoint along the different meridians exhibited different constellation patterns at various disease sites. Additionally, the spatial patterns of the indications of each acupoint were highly associated with the route of the corresponding meridian. The present findings demonstrate that the indications of each acupoint were primarily associated with the corresponding meridian system. Furthermore, these findings suggest that the routes of the meridians may have clinical implications in terms of identifying the constellations of the indications of acupoints. 1. Introduction In many instances, one diagram is better than a thousand words. For example, a famous physician from the early stages of the Tang Dynasty, Sun Si-miao, declared that an acupoint could not be well located without graphic guidance. The ancient Chinese invented several methods for displaying information about acupoints and meridians on the human body surface by relying on ancient infographics of the meridian system rather than a detailed knowledge of human anatomy. Additionally, they described empirical clinical information in terms of the selection of appropriate acupoints for the treatment of specific diseases. However, when Western people were exposed to the Chinese acupuncture map in the late 17th century, it was necessary for them to understand the acupuncture point system using anatomical knowledge. As a result, to comply with the contemporary conventions of European anatomical atlases, the first versions of the Chinese acupuncture map for the Western world were embellished with dissected flaps of skin at the head [1]. From a historical point of view, the Eastern texts Mingtang Diagram, Diagram of Meridian and Collaterals, and Bronze Statue were also gradually influenced by Western-style anatomy. However, despite decades of research and a merging of Western and Eastern ideals, an anatomical map of the meridians on the human body has yet to be fully realized [2]. It has been suggested that high electrical conductance, acupuncture sensation patterns, and possible relationships with connective tissue planes could represent meridians or act as identifiers for meridians [3–6]. However, none of these studies can fully explain the relationships that exist between treatment at each acupoint and the subsequent clinical improvements. Thus, one must understand the origin and clinical significance of the meridian system in order to fully understand the acupuncture process that is based on this system. Traditional East Asian medical techniques can be used to diagnose diseases of visceral organs, such as the stomach or kidneys, by the simple application of the appropriate palpations on the arteries around particular body sites. There are intriguing similarities between Western medicine and traditional bloodletting sites and acupoints, but Hippocratic treatments using venesection have largely lost their topographical importance and disappeared from the Western medicine [7]. In traditional East Asian medicine, on the other hand, the relationships among acupoints and disease sites are generally understood based on an empirical knowledge of the meridian system which functions as the underlying template for acupuncture treatment [8, 9]. In and of itself, the meridian system is also considered to be (...truncated)


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Won-Mo Jung, Taehyung Lee, In-Seon Lee, Sanghyun Kim, Hyunchul Jang, Song-Yi Kim, Hi-Joon Park, Younbyoung Chae. Spatial Patterns of the Indications of Acupoints Using Data Mining in Classic Medical Text: A Possible Visualization of the Meridian System, Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2015, 2015, DOI: 10.1155/2015/457071