Acupunct Electrother Res. 1987 ; 12(3-4): 201-25.

Basic electrical parameters for safe and effective electro-therapeutics [electro-acupuncture, TES, TENMS (or TEMS), TENS and electro-magnetic field stimulation with or without drug field] for pain, neuromuscular skeletal problems, and circulatory disturbances.

Omura Y.

Heart Disease Research Foundation, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11201.

Using voltage-time-dependent negative resistance characteristics of Voltage-Current curves of excitable cell membranes estimated without using artificial voltage clamp method, the author made a quantitative analysis of excitability of cell membranes and different conditions of transmembrane action potentials as a bias voltage to the negative resistance of the excitable cell membrane. The pacemaker cells were classified as "Astable Oscillators" and nonpacemaker excitable cells as "Monostable Oscillators," and application of a rapidly changing electromagnetic field to the cells was analyzed as a means of stimulating the cells. The understanding of the 10 essential electrical parameters is highly desirable for safe and effective electrical stimulation. Among these, emphasis was placed on the often neglected, important electrical parameters of "output impedance" of stimulation pulse wave complexes for + and - polarity components, as well as the importance of capacitive current (Ic = C.dV/dt) which depends on rise time as well as fall time of the stimulation pulse wave, and undesirable side effects of electrolysis phenomena due to excessive D.C. current. The difference and similarity between TENS (Transcutaneous Nerve Stimulation) and TES (Transcutaneous Electrical Stimulation), TENMS (Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve and Muscle Stimulation) or TMS (Transcutaneous Muscle Stimulation) was discussed. The author's clinical study indicated that effective TES (TENMS)--characterized by effective muscle contraction without creating pain with a pulse repetition rate approximately the same as the heart rate of the individual--can often give superior beneficial effects in improvement of micro-circulation and subsequent relief of pain and other symptoms compared with TENS that creates stimulation of large diameter sensory nerve fibers without creating significant muscle contraction. Such improvement is often accompanied by the abolishment of the pain with disappearance of local substance P and increase in local serotonin with disappearance of local L-tryptophan.