Pulse diagnosis were performed on 85 patients who came to the hospital for liver and gall-bladder problems. Correlation between liver tests, which include T-Bil, D-Bil, SGOT, SGPT, ZTT, Alp, gamma-GT, Cho, Alb, and ultra sound scanning, and pulse diagnosis were analyzed. 77 out of 85 subjects showed abnormal liver tests. We used the following 5 criteria for pulse diagnosis as liver abnormality to test the correlation: (1) C1 > or = 3+ and C1 + C4 > or = 4+ or C1 + C6 > or = 4 (in intensity); (2) C1 < or = 3 (in intensity); (3) C6 > or = 3 and C1 + C6 > or = 4 (in intensity); (4) C6 < or = -2 (in intensity) and C6 < or = -2 (in the phase) and (5) C1 > or = 2 C3 < or = -2 (in intensity) or C3 < or = -2 (in the phase). For C1 (liver) every 5% above normal was given one "+," every 5% below normal was given one "-." For C3 (spleen), C4 (lung), C6 (gall-bladder), every 10% above normal was given one "+,", every 10% below normal was given one "-." For the phase, every 10% delay in the traveling speed was given one "-." When considering only the "+" and "-" states and neglecting the quantity of "+" and "-," there are 2(11) (from intensity) x 2(11) (from phase), which equal 2048 x 2048 possible states in the pulse analysis. We considered only 5 criteria for liver abnormality; the correlation was still very high, p < 0.0002, kappa = 0.64. It strongly suggests that meridian theory and pulse diagnosis have physiological and pathological importance.

The effects of mechanical stimulation on hemodynamics, such as due to mechanotransduction in vascular endothelial cells, have been widely discussed recently. We previously proposed a resonance model in which the arterial system is treated as a pressure-transmitting system, and suggested that the application of external mechanical stimulation with frequencies near the heart rate (HR) or harmonics thereof can be sensed by the arterial system and induce hemodynamic changes. In this study, we monitored the effects of external mechanical stimulation at a frequency of double the HR on BPW (blood pressure waveform), HRV (HR variability) and BPHV (blood-pressure-harmonics variability) in rats. A motor beating a waterbed mattress was used to generate pressure variations of 0.5 mmHg to apply onto the rats. The experiments were performed on three groups of rats with different beating frequencies: (A) double the HR, (B) 5% deviation from double the HR and (C) 1.5 times the HR. The experimental procedure was a 15 min control period followed by application of the mechanical stimulation for 15 min and further recording for 15 min (OFF period). During the OFF period, the amplitude of the second harmonic in the BPW significantly increased by >5% in group A with decreased HRV and BPHV. The second harmonic increased less in group B, and decreased in group C. The increase in the second-harmonic amplitude in group A may be due to the filtering properties of the renal arterial structure. This mechanism could be used to improve the local blood supply into the kidneys, and hence provide a new treatment modality for some important diseases, such as renal hypertension or nephrosis.