Acupunct Electrother Res. 1985 ; 10(1-2): 41-66.

Acupuncture and tele-electronic infra-red thermography.

Liao SJ, Liao MK.

The re-introduction of acupuncture into the United States rekindled the interest in the management of chronic pain. Thermography has been shown to be a simple, non-invasive, reliable, and objective method to study pain. Our investigation included 81 patients with a variety of chronic pain conditions, one pain-free patients with left hemiparesis, and two normal subjects as controls. When pain was alleviated by acupuncture, thermography consistently demonstrated an increase of the infra-red radiation (IRR) of the affected parts of the body. Even though a patient might not report any reduction of pain, an elevation of the IRR of the affected site by acupuncture might imply the patient's denial of such an occurrence subconsciously or consciously. Acupuncture applied to pain-free patients tended to cause either no remarkable change of the infra-red pattern, or sometimes a slight decrease of the IRR if they experienced discomfort from needling. If normal thermographic patterns were observed in a patient with subjective pain, it practically excludes an actual existence of the complaint. The cooling effect of needling discomfort could be due to vasovagal over-activities. In conclusion, our investigation seemed to confirm that thermography indeed offered a simple, non-invasive, objective technique to study chronic pain and to provide an accurate measure of the effectiveness of acupuncture.