Optically noninvasive measurement of the light transport properties of human meridians

Abstract

To confirm the existence and properties of human meridians, the optical transport properties along the pericardium meridian and tissues around the pericardium meridian are studied noninvasively on twenty healthy volunteers in vivo and then compared with each other. Our study shows that the light propagating along the meridian and non-meridian directions both conform to the Beer’s exponential attenuation law. However, statistical analysis of the results suggests that the optical transport properties of human meridian differ from those of the surrounding tissues over a low modulated frequency range (P < 0.01), and light attenuation along the pericardium meridian is significantly less than that along the non-meridian direction. These findings not only indicate the existence of acupuncturemeridian from the point of view of biomedical optics, but also shed new light on an approach to investigation of human meridians.