Development of a uni-acupoint transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation device for electroacupuncture-like neuromodulation.

Transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation (TENS) targeting at certain acupoints can be deemed as variation of electroacupuncture (EA) with the key advantage of non-invasiveness. However, existing operations of TENS usually involve placing at least two electrodes separately to form the electric circuit. To disentangle the concurrent stimulation of multiple sites and investigate the necessity of acupoint specificity on the basis of the traditional acupuncture theory, we developed a uni-acupoint TENS device aiming at performing non-invasive EA-like neuromodulation. It consists of a concentric anode-cathode arrangement with a maximal outer diameter of 32 mm integrated with a stimulating current generator. Once applied, it delivers square wave pulse trains with adjustable parameters (pulse form, intensity, frequency and width), and only a tiny area enclosing the selected acupoint would be electrically activated with no other acupoint of meridian affected. A simulated driving experiment was also carried out to verify the device's efficacy when conducting stimulation solely at the acupoint Neiguan (PC 6) to withstand driver fatigue. The results suggest that the device facilitates the application of effective EA-like stimulation with its most unique advantages of acupoint specificity and non-invasiveness.
PMID: 24111145