Three-dimensional imaging device and method for skin electrical properties of acupoint regions during acupuncture

Abstract

The present invention discloses a three-dimensional imaging device and method for the skin electrical characteristics of acupoint regions during acupuncture. The method is as follows: First, according to the measurement requirements of acupoint regions, a sensor is designed, and on this basis, a three-dimensional mathematical model of skin impedance in acupoint regions is established; then, through the signal control and data acquisition part, the differential measurement between the measured value and the background value during acupuncture is carried out to obtain the relative voltage change value of different height layers of the skin under the stimulation of the treatment needle; then, according to the measurement array of the relative voltage change of different height layers, imaging is performed by an image reconstruction algorithm to realize the three-dimensional imaging of skin impedance in acupoint regions. The imaging device mainly includes a sensor, a signal control and data acquisition part, and an image reconstruction part. The present invention will not generate electrical signal interference during acupuncture, can obtain three-dimensional information of skin impedance, and is beneficial to reducing the influence of individual differences on the analysis of general laws.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention belongs to the field of traditional Chinese medicine acupuncture and its medical imaging applications, and particularly relates to a three-dimensional imaging device and method for the skin electrical properties of acupoint regions during acupuncture. Background Art

[0002] Acupuncture is an important part of traditional medicine. As a common therapy for external treatment of traditional medicine, acupuncture has the functions of coordinating yin and yang, strengthening healthy qi and eliminating pathogenic factors, and dredging meridians, etc., and its application range in clinical practice is extremely wide. Clinical experiments show that acupuncture is effectively applicable to nearly 200 diseases. A large number of modern research results have initially confirmed that there are differences in the skin resistance of the body surface meridians and acupoint regions of the human body compared with non-acupoint regions, and these differences change with the corresponding zang-fu organ functions and the physiological and pathological characteristics of the human body. This difference provides an important basis for the quantitative research and detection of meridians. Among them, acupuncture manipulation is the key technology in acupuncture treatment. Its various acupuncture manipulations, acupuncture frequencies, and acupuncture intensities all have an impact on the human body, directly determining the prognosis of diseases. The quantitative research on acupuncture manipulation has greatly promoted the development of acupuncture clinical practice.

[0003] The measurement of skin impedance in acupoint regions is the earliest scientific research direction of acupuncture. This aspect of research is expected to reveal the action laws and mechanisms of traditional acupuncture and quantify the treatment effects of acupuncture. Currently, the main measurement methods of most instruments include the bridge method, the two-electrode method, the four-ring electrode method, and the four-electrode method. Among them, the four-ring electrode measurement system is commonly used for in vitro measurement of biological tissues and is rarely used in in vivo bioimpedance measurement. The bridge measurement method uses the principle of bridge balance to measure the impedance of biological tissues, but it is rarely seen in modern impedance measurement systems due to reasons such as its difficult adjustment. The two-electrode resistance detector has many interference factors and poor stability of measurement results. The earliest German "Volta electro-acupuncture" and Japanese "Ryodoraku diagnosis" are both based on the two-electrode method. Chinese scholars developed an alternating current four-electrode measuring instrument based on the four-electrode method, which can detect the resistance value in the subcutaneous shallow layer (2 mm) region. The four-electrode resistance detector can measure relatively stable resistance values and has become the main method for detecting the electrical properties of biological tissues. However, the method of single measurement electrode moving and scanning requires manual positioning, not only with low detection efficiency but also with large influence of subjective factors on the measurement results, resulting in insufficient repeatability and reliability of the measurement results. With the progress of software and hardware systems, in recent years, the measurement of acupoint impedance has developed towards the direction of multi-channel and visualization. Ye Xiaohong et al. developed a 64-channel array measurement system based on the four-electrode measurement method, and displayed the impedance values measured on each measurement channel in the form of a grayscale image, expanding the detection of skin impedance from "points" to "surfaces". From the perspective of the measurement principle, it is still an expansion of the traditional four-electrode method in terms of quantity.

[0004] With the in-depth scientific research on acupuncture, it has been recognized that during acupuncture with different techniques (such as retaining needle technique, reinforcing needling method, and reducing needling method, etc.), different changes will occur in the electrical characteristics of acupoints. This discovery is of great significance for exploring the action laws and treatment mechanisms of different acupuncture techniques in traditional acupuncture. However, the existing single-acupoint electrical characteristic measuring instrument is based on the measurement principle of the four-electrode method. Each time, it can only obtain data of a single measurement point, which reflects the average apparent resistivity of the skin in the acupoint area and does not have spatial resolution. Moreover, it is generally a static measurement and is difficult to track the dynamic changes of the skin impedance in the acupoint area during acupuncture in real time.

[0005] Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is a new type of medical electromagnetic imaging method. According to the different electrical impedances of different tissues in the human body under different physiological and pathological states, a small safe driving current / voltage is applied to the human body through electrodes, and the response voltage / current signal is measured outside the body to reconstruct the image of the internal electrical impedance distribution or its changes in the human body. As a functional imaging method, the advantages of EIT such as safety, non-invasiveness, low cost, and good real-time performance make it have the potential to be applied to the electrical impedance imaging of the skin in the acupoint area during acupuncture. However, during the measurement process of EIT, an excitation current needs to be injected through electrodes, and this externally applied electrical signal may interfere with the electrical signals generated during the acupuncture process itself, which is not conducive to online analysis. Therefore, exploring a three-dimensional imaging device and method for the electrical characteristics of acupoints with a certain spatial resolution during acupuncture treatment is of great significance for analyzing the action laws and mechanisms of different acupuncture techniques and quantifying the evaluation system of traditional acupuncture treatment effects. Summary of the Invention

[0006] The object of the present invention is to overcome the deficiencies of the existing single-point measurement of the electrical characteristics of acupoints and the lack of spatial resolution, and to propose a three-dimensional imaging device and method for the electrical characteristics of the skin in the acupoint area during acupuncture.

[0007] To achieve the above object, the technical solution adopted by the present invention is as follows:

[0008] An electrical characteristic imaging device for the skin in the acupoint area during acupuncture, comprising a sensor, a signal control and data acquisition part, a data line, an image reconstruction part, a treatment needle, and a treatment needle power supply; the signal control and data acquisition part is connected to the sensor, and the output end of the signal control and data acquisition part is connected to the image reconstruction part through the data line; during acupuncture, the treatment needle obtains a current signal through the treatment needle power supply, and the current signal serves as the excitation signal of the imaging device; the sensor includes an electrode array composed of multiple sensing needles, and detection points and insulating films are arranged on the sensing needles; multiple sensing needles are arranged at equal intervals and fixed on a frame made of a rigid insulating material and are located at the same height.

[0009] Further, the signal control and data acquisition section includes a power supply module, a timing signal generation module, a plurality of voltage measurement modules corresponding to a plurality of sensing needles one by one, a data acquisition module, and a control module; the power supply module is used to provide the working power supply for the components; the input end of the voltage measurement module is connected to the power supply module, and the output end is connected to the data acquisition module. The output end of the voltage measurement module is connected to the input end of an operational amplifier, and the output end of the operational amplifier is connected to the input end of a filter; the input end of the timing signal generation module is connected to the control module, and the output end is connected to the input end of the data acquisition module; the input end of the data acquisition module is connected to the voltage measurement module, the timing signal generation module, and the control module, and the output end is connected to the image reconstruction section; the output end of the control module is connected to the timing signal generation module, the data acquisition module, and the image reconstruction section, and is used to control the generation of timing signals and the acquisition and transmission processes of data.

[0010] Further, detection points are set at different height layers on the sensing needles. The detection points are obtained by plating gold at the detection points through an electroplating process and are used to transmit the electrical signals of the skin at the detection points; through the process of coating an insulating layer, an insulating film is coated on the rest of the surface layer of the acupuncture needle to achieve the effect of focusing the excitation and detection signals.

[0011] Further, the number of detection points arranged on each sensing needle is the same and they are all located at the same height; the electrodes of the sensing needles penetrate the skin during acupuncture treatment, and the voltage of the detection points is measured to reflect the change in skin impedance during acupuncture treatment.

[0012] Further, the input end of the image reconstruction section is connected to the output end of the data acquisition module in the signal control and data acquisition section, and is used to receive the voltage signals detected on the electrodes of each sensing needle and perform image reconstruction through an imaging algorithm.

[0013] The present invention also provides an imaging method for an acupoint area skin electrical property imaging device during acupuncture, including the following steps:

[0014] (1) According to the measurement requirements of the acupoint area, design the number of electrode arrays in the sensor and the positions of the detection points of the sensing needles, and on this basis, establish a three-dimensional mathematical model of the skin impedance in the acupoint area;

[0015] (2) Through the signal control and data acquisition section, perform differential measurement between the measured value and the background value during acupuncture to obtain the relative voltage change value of different height layers of the skin under the stimulation of the treatment needle; among them, the skin voltage value measured by the sensing needle in the state without acupuncture is used as the background value, and the skin voltage value measured by the sensing needle after acupuncture is used as the measured value;

[0016] (3) Based on the measurement array of the relative change values of voltages at different height levels, the image reconstruction section performs imaging through the equipotential line filtering back-projection algorithm to achieve three-dimensional imaging of the skin impedance in the acupoint area.

[0017] Advantages:

[0018] The acupoint electrical property imaging method of the present invention is based on the principle of electrical impedance tomography of the skin. The biggest difference from the traditional electrical impedance tomography method is that the present invention ingeniously utilizes the current applied on the treatment needle during the acupuncture process as the excitation current required for detection, uses the sensing needle inserted into the surface skin as the detection electrode array, obtains the voltage information of the three-dimensional cortical tissue at different depths according to the detection points at different heights on the sensing needle, constructs a mathematical model, and realizes the image reconstruction of the skin impedance change during the acupuncture process through the imaging algorithm. The advantages of this method are as follows: (1) During the detection process, except for the current on the treatment needle, no other excitation current signals need to be introduced, and there will be no electrical signal interference to the acupuncture process; (2) According to the detection points located at different height levels on the sensing needle, three-dimensional information of the skin impedance can be obtained; (3) The detection object is the change amount of the skin impedance, and this differential measurement method is beneficial to reducing the influence of individual differences on the analysis of general laws. Description of the Drawings

[0019] Figure 1 Schematic diagram of the skin electrical property imaging device in the acupoint area of the present invention;

[0020] Figure 2 Schematic diagram of the sensing needle electrode of the sensor of the present invention;

[0021] Figure 3 Schematic diagram of the sensor electrode array of the present invention;

[0022] Figure 4 Schematic diagram of the signal control and data acquisition part of the present invention;

[0023] Figure 5 Is the projection area for back-projection along the equipotential line. Specific Embodiments

[0024] In order to make the objectives, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention clearer, the present invention will be further described in detail below with reference to the drawings and embodiments. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are only used to explain the present invention and are not used to limit the present invention. In addition, the technical features involved in the various embodiments of the present invention described below can be combined with each other as long as they do not conflict with each other.

[0025] Such as Figure 1As shown in the figure, the acupoint area skin electrical property imaging device of the present invention mainly includes a sensor 1, a signal control and data acquisition part 2, a data line 3, an image reconstruction part 4, a treatment needle 5 and a treatment needle power supply 6. The signal control and data acquisition part 2 is connected to the sensor 1, and the output end of the signal control and data acquisition part 2 is connected to the image reconstruction part 4 through the data line 3. During the acupuncture process, the treatment needle 5 obtains a current signal through the treatment needle power supply 6, and this signal serves as the excitation signal of the imaging device.

[0026] The sensor 1 includes an electrode array composed of a plurality of sensing needles 9. The electrodes of the sensing needles 9 are as Figure 2 shown, including the detection points 7 of the sensing needles 9 and the insulating film 8 of the sensing needles 9. The sensing needles 9 are based on traditional acupuncture needles. By using coating and electroplating methods, detection points 7 are set at different height layers on the acupuncture needles, and gold is plated at the detection points 7 through the electroplating process to transmit the electrical signals of the skin at the detection points. Through the process of coating the insulating layer, the remaining parts of the acupuncture needle surface are coated with the insulating film 8 to achieve the effect of focusing the excitation and detection signals.

[0027] The sensor 1 is as Figure 3 shown, including a plurality of sensing needles 9. The sensing needles 9 are arranged at equal intervals and fixed on a frame 10 made of a rigid insulating material (such as PVC) and are at the same height to ensure that the relative positions of the sensing needles 9 remain fixed during the entire measurement period. The number of detection points 7 arranged on each sensing needle 9 is the same and is at the same height. The electrodes of the sensing needles 9 of the sensor penetrate the skin during the acupuncture treatment, and the voltage of the detection points 7 is measured to reflect the change of skin impedance during the acupuncture treatment. The plane surrounded by the detection points on the same height plane of the electrodes of the sensing needles 9 of the sensor 1 is the measurement section 11 of the sensor 1, and the measurement object is the impedance value of the skin of this measurement section.

[0028] The signal control and data acquisition part 2 is as Figure 4As shown in the figure, it includes a power supply module, a timing signal generation module, a plurality of voltage measurement modules corresponding to the sensing needles 9 one by one, a data acquisition module, and a control module. The power supply module is used to provide the working power supply for the components. The input end of the voltage measurement module is connected to the power supply module, and the output end is connected to the data acquisition module, and is connected to the corresponding sensing needle 9 through a data line to measure the voltage at the detection point 7 of the sensing needle 9 at this time. The output end of the voltage measurement module is connected to the input end of the operational amplifier, and the output end of the operational amplifier is then connected to the input end of the filter. The voltage signals of the two modes collected by the voltage measurement module are amplified and filtered, and the final voltage signal U of this signal channel is output at the output end of the filter circuit. The timing signal generation module issues a clock signal for pulse triggering. The input end of the timing signal generation module is connected to the control module, and the output end is connected to the input end of the data acquisition module. The input end of the data acquisition module is connected to the voltage measurement module, the timing signal generation module, and the control module, and the output end is connected to the image reconstruction part for data communication with the imaging device. The output end of the control module is connected to the timing signal generation module, the data acquisition module, and the image reconstruction part for controlling the generation of the timing signal and the process of data acquisition and transmission.

[0029] The input end of the image reconstruction part is connected to the output end of the data acquisition module in the signal control and data acquisition part 2, and is used to receive the voltage signals detected on the electrodes of each sensing needle 9 and perform image reconstruction through an imaging algorithm. Since during the acupuncture process, the change in skin impedance in the acupoint area satisfies the condition of small perturbation, the image reconstruction part adopts a linear approximation real-time imaging algorithm - the filtered back projection (FBP) algorithm based on equipotential line. The FBP algorithm uses the voltage measurement data at two different times to obtain the difference in impedance distribution at the two times through image reconstruction technology, thereby reconstructing the differential image. Such processing eliminates the systematic error and noise of the measurement data when subtracting, so the algorithm has low requirements for the data acquisition system, has a fast imaging speed, and can achieve real-time imaging.

[0030] The main principle of the FBP algorithm is as follows: For a uniform conductivity distribution, equipotential lines can be determined in the region Ω. There are a series of equipotential lines between the current dipole and each measurement electrode. According to the potentials on two adjacent measurement electrodes on the boundary, the unit pixels with potentials between the two potentials are classified into a projection area, that is, the area between adjacent equipotential lines is a projection area. In this way, the imaging area is divided into multiple back-projection areas, as Figure 5 shown.

[0031] When the regional conductivity changes from σ perturbation to σ + △σ, the change in the potential difference between the two measurement electrodes is only related to the change in conductivity between the two equipotential lines passing through the two measurement electrodes. After filtering this change in potential difference and then performing back-projection processing, the reconstructed conductivity image of the relevant region can be obtained by superimposing the back-projections under all independent injection modes.

[0032] Mathematically, the above process can be expressed as:

[0033] δσ = BFδU

[0034] In the above formula, F and B are the filtering operator and the back-projection operator respectively. The calculation formula of the filtering operator F is:

[0035] F = (B T JB) -1 B T B

[0036] The sensor 1 uses the skin voltage value measured by the sensing needle 9 in the non-needle-insertion state as the background value, and the skin voltage value measured by the sensing needle 9 after needle insertion as the measurement value. The difference measurement value of the skin voltage is obtained by subtracting the background value from the measurement value. According to the difference measurement values at different height layers on the sensing needle, the three-dimensional impedance distribution of the skin can be inversely obtained through the FBP algorithm.

[0037] The acupoint electrical property imaging device of the present invention can obtain N×M measurement voltage arrays in one measurement process, where N represents the number of sensing needles in the sensor, and M represents the number of detection points arranged on the sensing needle. During measurement, each detection point of the sensor is connected to the input end of the voltage measurement module in the corresponding signal control and data acquisition part; the signal control and data acquisition part can realize synchronous data acquisition of N×M signal acquisition channels, and at the same time, after conditioning the acquired voltage signals such as amplification and filtering, the data is transmitted to the image reconstruction part.

[0038] The main steps of the acupoint electrical property imaging method of the present invention are as follows:

[0039] 1) According to the measurement requirements of the acupoint area, design the sensor, including the number of electrode arrays in the sensor, the detection point positions of the sensing needles, etc. On this basis, establish a three-dimensional mathematical model of the skin impedance in the acupoint area;

[0040] 2) Through the signal control and data acquisition part, perform differential measurement between the measurement value and the background value during acupuncture to obtain the relative change value of the voltage at different height layers of the skin under the stimulation of the treatment needle;

[0041] 3) According to the measurement arrays of the relative change of voltage at different height layers, the image reconstruction part performs imaging through the FBP algorithm to realize three-dimensional imaging of the skin impedance in the acupoint area.

[0042] Those skilled in the art can easily understand that the above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention and is not intended to limit the present invention. Any modifications, equivalent substitutions, and improvements made within the spirit and principle of the present invention shall be included within the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A three-dimensional imaging device for the skin electrical characteristics of acupoint areas during acupuncture, characterized in that: it includes a sensor, a signal control and data acquisition part, a data line, an image reconstruction part, a treatment needle and a treatment needle power supply; the signal control and data acquisition part is connected to the sensor, and the output end of the signal control and data acquisition part is connected to the image reconstruction part through the data line; during acupuncture, the treatment needle obtains a current signal through the treatment needle power supply, and the current signal serves as the excitation signal of the imaging device; the sensor includes an electrode array composed of multiple sensing needles, and a detection point and an insulating film are arranged on the sensing needle; multiple sensing needles are arranged at equal intervals and fixed on a frame made of a hard insulating material and are at the same height; Detection points are set at different height layers on the sensing needle. The detection points are obtained by plating gold at the detection points through an electroplating process and are used to transmit the electrical signals of the skin at the detection points; after the process of coating the insulating layer, the rest of the surface of the acupuncture needle is coated with an insulating film to achieve the effect of focusing the excitation and detection signals; The number of detection points arranged on each sensing needle is the same and they are all at the same height; the electrodes of the sensing needles penetrate the skin during acupuncture treatment, and the voltage at the detection points is measured to reflect the change in skin impedance during acupuncture treatment.

2. The three-dimensional imaging device for the skin electrical characteristics of acupoint areas during acupuncture according to claim 1, characterized in that: the signal control and data acquisition part includes a power supply module, a timing signal generation module, multiple voltage measurement modules corresponding to multiple sensing needles one by one, a data acquisition module and a control module; the power supply module is used to provide the working power supply for the components; the input end of the voltage measurement module is connected to the power supply module, the output end is connected to the data acquisition module, the output end of the voltage measurement module is connected to the input end of the operational amplifier, and the output end of the operational amplifier is then connected to the input end of the filter; the input end of the timing signal generation module is connected to the control module, and the output end is connected to the input end of the data acquisition module; the input end of the data acquisition module is connected to the voltage measurement module, the timing signal generation module and the control module, and the output end is connected to the image reconstruction part; the output end of the control module is connected to the timing signal generation module, the data acquisition module and the image reconstruction part, and is used to control the generation of timing signals and the acquisition and transmission process of data.

3. The three-dimensional imaging device for the skin electrical characteristics of acupoint areas during acupuncture according to claim 1, characterized in that: the input end of the image reconstruction part is connected to the output end of the data acquisition module in the signal control and data acquisition part, and is used to receive the voltage signals detected on the electrodes of each sensing needle and perform image reconstruction through an imaging algorithm.

4. The imaging method of the three-dimensional imaging device for the skin electrical characteristics of acupoint areas during acupuncture according to any one of claims 1-3, characterized in that, it includes the following steps: (1) According to the measurement requirements of the acupoint area, design the number of the electrode array in the sensor and the positions of the detection points of the sensing needles, and on this basis, establish a three-dimensional mathematical model of the skin impedance of the acupoint area; (2) Measure the difference between the measured value and the background value during the acupuncture process through the signal control and data acquisition part, and obtain the relative voltage change value of different height layers of the skin under the stimulation of the treatment needle; among them, the skin voltage value measured by the sensing needle in the state without needle insertion is used as the background value, and the skin voltage value measured by the sensing needle after needle insertion is used as the measured value; (3) According to the measurement array of the relative voltage change value of different height layers, the image reconstruction part performs imaging through the equipotential line filtering back-projection algorithm to realize three-dimensional imaging of the skin impedance in the acupoint area.

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