Pulse diagnosis in traditional acupuncture

Abstract

The process of pulse diagnosis was examined in a sample of 100 patients randomly selected from the author's acupuncture clinic. Patient symptoms, pulses (as utilised in traditional Chinese medicine), diagnostic criteria (as described in traditional Chinese medicine), acupuncture points selected and patient comments after each treatment were coded into a numerical format suitable for stepwise multiple regression and crosstabulation analysis.
The analysis indicated that the interpretation of pulse qualities predicted the diagnostic criteria when used in accordance with the theories of acupuncture. The selection of acupuncture points could not be predicted from the diagnostic criteria when using pulse diagnosis. Additionally the analysis indicated that the patient comments after acupuncture were independent of the initial patient symptoms.
More research is needed to more fully understand the process of pulse diagnosis. However the analysis does suggest that pulse diagnosis should be incorporated into acupuncture curricula in both traditional acupuncture courses and medical acupuncture courses.

Date of Award	1993
Original language	English
Supervisor	Lawrie Kendall (Supervisor)