Study on Force Mechanism for Therapeutic Effect of Pushing Manipulation with One-Finger Meditation Base on Similarity Analysis of Force and Waveform.

OBJECTIVE: To reveal the force mechanism for therapeutic effect of pushing manipulation with one-finger meditation. METHODS: A total of 15 participants were recruited in this study and assigned to an expert group, a skilled group and a novice group, with 5 participants in each group. Mechanical signals were collected from a biomechanical testing platform, and these data were further observed via similarity analysis and cluster analysis. RESULTS: Comparing the force waveforms of manipulation revealed that the manipulation forces were similar between the expert group and the skilled group (P>0.05). The mean value of vertical force was 9.8 N, and 95% CI rang from 6.37 to 14.70 N, but there were significant differences compared with the novice group (P<0.05). The result of overall similarity coefficient cluster analysis showed that two kinds of manipulation forces curves were existed between the expert group and the skilled group. CONCLUSION: Pushing manipulation with one-finger meditation is a kind of light stimulation manipulation on the acupoint, and force characteristics of double waveforms continuously alternated during manual operation.