Page 317 - 2025中醫藥與天然藥物聯合學術研討會-中醫藥與天然藥物的挑戰Ｘ機遇與未來大會手冊

TC-02

Acupoints, dermatomes, body parts, acupuncture therapy, and other

integrative therapies for itch (pruritus) reduction: data mining, descriptive

bibliometric, and visualization analyses

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3
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Kim-Ngan H. Nguyen, * Peter Karl Mayer, Li-Wei Chou

1 Graduate Institute of Acupuncture Science, College of Chinese Medicine, China Medical
University, Taichung City, Taiwan
2 International Master Program in Acupuncture, College of Chinese Medicine, China Medical
University, Taichung City, Taiwan
3 Department of Physical Therapy and Graduate Institute of Rehabilitation Science, China
Medical University, Taichung City, Taiwan
* E-mail: nhknganct@gmail.com

Abstract
Many integrative therapies, including acupuncture, have shown their effectiveness on itch.
Utilizations of acupoints and body parts in these integrative therapies are diverse, so we want
to explore their patterns to deconstruct information, guidance, or knowledge from them.
Bibliometric analysis is in the field of data mining that exploits a massive amount of data (called
‘big data’). After analyzing the mined big data, bibliometric indicators reveal patterns, trends,
international influences, research gaps, and other characteristics of the scientific literature.
Visualization analysis produces graphics that help people quickly determine the data patterns.
We designed inquiries and searched them on the Web of Science database. We filtered the
categories and contents of publications and extracted content from publications. Subsequently,
we utilized the 'occurrences' (no) term to describe the evaluated targets’ appearing frequencies.
Excel, SPSS, and VOSviewer software were employed to analyze and visualize the data. In
both human and animal publications, LI-11 (9.6% & 31.8%), ST-36 (6.8% & 15.9%), LI-4
(5.6% & 15.9%), SP-10 (5.9% & 6.8%), and SP-6 (5.3% & 4.5%) were the most popularly
employed acupoints, respectively. Local points (not acupoints) (6.2% & 6.8%) right at and/or
surrounding the itching areas were also common. Interventions of the same dermatomes yielded
better effects than those of different dermatomes. Concerning intervention body parts, the limbs
(49.1% & 72%) were the most commonly favored. Twenty-four and seven (duplicating in those
twenty-four) integrative therapies were extracted for human and animal publications,
respectively. In which, acupuncture (including its various subtypes) (64%) was the most popular
studied/applied therapy. Generally, manual acupuncture (53.1%), aquapuncture (10.2%), and
electroacupuncture (9.6%) were the most researched/employed among the twenty-four
extracted integrative therapies. According to our most recent knowledge from data mining,
interventions targeting itch areas (especially right at the itch areas or surrounding them but in
the same dermatomes) for local effects and acupoints (especially limb-based acupoints) for
distal effects are an effective treatment strategy. Acupuncture was the most popular treatment
in this field. Alongside, there were still over twenty other potential integrative therapies
available.

Keywords: Acupoint; Body part; Acupuncture; Integrative therapy; Itch