Toward the Development of a Novel Flexible Sensor for Simultaneous Measurement of Acupoint Resistance and Temperature in Human Subjects

• Published in: IEEE access Vol. 13; pp. 28766 - 28776
• Main Authors: Yu, Zheng, Tang, Yusheng, Zhang, Linshuai, Wang, Ziqian, Shu, Xuanhao, Li, Hang, Zhang, Yafei, Luo, Xuerong, Yang, Xihong, Cao, Xianfeng, Yu, Shuguang, Wen, Chuanbiao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Piscataway IEEE 2025; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Accuracy; Acupoint sensitization; Electrical resistance measurement; Electrodes; Error analysis; Error detection; Flexible components; flexible sensor; Frequency measurement; Human performance; Immune system; Monitoring; resistance detecting; Resistance factors; Semiconductor device measurement; Skin; Temperature measurement; Thermocouples
• ISSN: 2169-3536; 2169-3536
• DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2025.3539368

Acupoint sensitization theory guides clinical diagnosis and treatment, positing that disease factors alter the state of acupoints, typically manifesting as changes in temperature, resistance, and pain threshold. Flexible sensors can rapidly detect sensitized acupoints and evaluate efficacy by measuring the resistance and temperature values of acupoints. Consequently, utilizing ultra-thin polyimide as a substrate, the research group developed a flexible sensor capable of simultaneously detecting acupoint temperature and resistance while providing therapeutic functions. the designed sensor features a compact size, low mass, high flexibility, and high measurement accuracy. It achieves a temperature measurement accuracy of 0.002-0.02°C within the range of 0-40°C. The detection error falls within the range of 10.5 to <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">17.5\Omega </tex-math></inline-formula> within the range of 2.1K<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\Omega </tex-math></inline-formula> to 100K<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\Omega </tex-math></inline-formula>. Furthermore, the designed sensor has been applied to human sensitized acupoint monitoring and intervention experiments, demonstrating favorable performance, which offers potential for future acupoint sensitization research.