Measurement and analysis of optical properties of acupuncture points and channels

We are researching the optical properties of acupuncture points and channels as another index of diagnosis. We measured the reflected photons on acupuncture points and nonacupuncture points and the propagated photons on acupuncture channel and nonacupuncture channel respectively. We used a laser light source in the NIR region and Si photodiode as a detector. Light is modulated in several tens of Hz to remove interference noise and its consumption power is maintained below 5 mW. Our in-vivo experimental results show that the acupuncture point has different optical reflectance distributions compared to nonacupuncture point and different propagation characteristics between acupuncture channel and nonacupuncture channel.