ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To observe whether injection of medicine into low hydraulic resistance point along meridian brings about higher medicinal effect and to explore the efficacy of the theory that meridians are made up of channels featuring low hydraulic resistance by observing the diuretic effect of injecting furosemide or saline into the low hydraulic resistance point Shuifen (CV 9), vein and Zusanli (St 36) respectively. METHODS: Acute edema was induced in pigs by rapid intravenous injection of 2 000 ml normal saline. The pigs were divided into four groups: Shuifen (CV 9) injection of half dose furosemide group (SFF group), intravenous injection of full dose furosemide group (VF group), Zusanli (St 36) injection of full dose furosemide group (ZSLF group), and Shuifen (CV 9) injection of half dose normal saline group (SFS group). The accumulated urine quantity and the urine quantity generated in every 15-minute period were measured in each group respectively, every 15 minutes after injection, and the measurement lasted for two hours at one experiment. Each group involved eight times of experiments with one pig used for one experiment, which means the whole observation involved 32 times of experiments. RESULTS: The accumulated urine quantities observed in both SFF group and VF group were higher than those in the ZSLF group and the SFS group all through the measurement, showing significant differences during the period from the 15th minute to the 45th minute (P0.05). Analysis of urine quantity generated in every 15-minute period showed that diuretic effect climaxed during the 15th minute to the 30th minute in both SFF group and VF group. By contrast, ZSLF group reached diuresis climax during the 45th minute to 60th minute and no diuresis climax was observed in the SFS group all through the measurement. CONCLUSION: Injection of medicine into low hydraulic resistance point along meridian generates faster and more powerful medicinal potency, and this is likely to be applied to clinical practice. The theory that meridians are channels featuring low hydraulic resistance is important to the elucidation of meridians.