Influence of Spleen Meridian Herbs on the Harmonic Spectrum of the Arterial Pulse

Abstract

Pulse analysis is a powerful method in Chinese medicine. We suggest that the effect of herbal medicine is to redistribute the blood to organs and meridians. In this report, by injecting extracts into rats and then analyzing the blood pressure wave measured at the caudate arteries, we studied eight important spleen meridian related herbs: They were Semen Lablab, Fructus Amomi Globosi, Rhizoma Atractylodis Macrocephalae, Rhizoma Atractylodis, Tuber Pinelliae, Radix Codonopsitis, Pericarpium Aurantii and Rhizoma Polygonati. All eight herbs increased the intensity of the 3rd harmonic (C3) of the pressure pulse which is correlated to the spleen and spleen meridian, as described in traditional Chinese medical literature. All of them also increased the 2nd harmonic (which is correlated to the kidney and the kidney meridian) as well as decreased the heart load (DC term of pressure wave, C0). Tuber Pinelliae, Radix Codonopsitis, Pericarpium Aurantii and Rhizoma Polygonati decreased the 1st harmonic (correlated to the liver meridian) significantly, while Rhizoma Atractylodis Macrocephalae only decreased C1 slightly. Except for Semen Lablab, all the others decreased the intensity of the 5th (stomach meridian) and the 7th harmonics. The effects of kidney herbs: Cortex Eucommiae and Radix Achyranthis were also shown for comparison.

Pulse wave reflections in branching arterial networks and pulse diagnosis methods

“…At first, the tree geometry defines the resonant harmonics, as they were introduced in (Wang et al, 1991;Yu et al, 1994;Lu et al, 1996;Young et al, 1992;Wang et al, 2000a;Wang et al, 2000b), and their amplitudes. The influence of the branching asymmetry ξ=0.25−1 on Y 1°= Y 1 / Downloaded by [University of Nebraska, Lincoln] at 18:58 05 April 2015 Y 1 0 is shown in Fig.…”

“…It helps to conduct the interpretation of Y 1°( n) curves in excess/deficiency terms without detailed understanding of the correspondent pathological variations of all the hemodynamical parameters. It should be pointed out that the diagnostics of the combined pathologies of different inner organs by the resonant harmonics method (Wang et al, 1991;Yu et al, 1994;Lu et al, 1996;Young et al, 1992;Wang et al, 2000a;Wang et al, 2000b) remains unclear. Different organs possess quite different main and some additional resonant harmonics (Yu et al, 1994;Lu et al, 1996;Wang et al, 2000a) and the coincidence of main and additional harmonics of different organs would be expected.…”

“…Based on the clinical observations and experiments the correspondence between the main resonant harmonics and the inner organs was proposed. In this scheme n=0−7 correspond to the heart, liver, kidneys, spleen, lung, stomach, gall and urinary bladders (Wang et al, 1991;Yu et al, 1994;Lu et al, 1996;Young et al, 1992;Wang et al, 2000a). These are the main inner organs and their state can be estimated by the pulse diagnosis methods of traditional Chinese medicine.…”

“…Both experimental investigations and clinical observations have revealed the existence of unique sets of resonant frequencies in the Fourier spectrum of the pulse in the inner organs (kidneys, liver, spleen and gall bladder (Yu et al, 1994;Lu et al, 1996;Young et al, 1992;Wang et al, 2000a)). The amplitudes of the resonant harmonics depend on the organ state (normal or pathological) and show the state in excess-deficiency terms.…”

Review of Traditional Chinese Medicine Pulse Diagnosis Quantification

“…The majority of the studies that use the frequency domain to analyze the arterial pulse have focused on differentiating diseases [35][36][37], examining the power spectrum in relation to the meridians [38,39], and investigating the relationship among disease, syndrome, and channels [23,[40][41][42][43]45]. Only a few studies have explored the characteristics of the power spectrum for different pulse conditions [46,47].…”