ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE@#To analyze the literature regarding wrist-ankle acupuncture therapy by data mining technology, and the dominant diseases of wrist-ankle acupuncture therapy were summarized to provide reference for evaluation of specificity effect of wrist-ankle acupuncture therapy.@*METHODS@#The journal articles regarding wrist-ankle acupuncture therapy from the CNKI, WANFANG, and VIP since January 1, 1975 to December 31, 2017, and the medical cases regarding wrist-ankle acupuncture therapy in - and were retrieved. Based on the disease types of wrist-ankle acupuncture therapy in the journal articles and medical cases, the association rules method of data mining technology was applied to calculate frequent itemsets. The self-developed database platform for wrist-ankle acupuncture therapy was used to extract and summarize the information to explore the rules of clinical application.@*RESULTS@#The scope of disease involved a total of 7 disease entities in the literature regarding wrist-ankle acupuncture therapy. In the journal articles, there were 83 disease types and the most common surgical diseases were soft tissue injury and periarthritis of shoulder, the frequency were 34 and 24 times respectively. The total effective rates of wrist-ankle acupuncture therapy were 92.74% in internal medicine, 91.39% in surgery, 91.51% in gynecology, 90.88% in dermatology, 96.20% in pediatric, 89.05% in ophthalmology and otorhinolaryngology and 88.78% in psychiatry. In the medical cases of wrist-ankle acupuncture therapy, there were 118 disease types and the most common diseases were pain and syndrome, herpes zoster was also a common disease. Psychiatric diseases used more wrist-ankle acupuncture therapy, and the common diseases were anxiety and mania.@*CONCLUSION@#Wrist-ankle acupuncture therapy is widely used in treatment of clinical diseases and has significant therapeutic effects. It is mostly used in the treatment of surgery, internal medicine (neurology particularly), dermatology (herpes zoster particularly). Besides, the wrist-ankle acupuncture therapy is also applicable in the treatment of diseases of ophthalmology and otorhinolaryngology, gynecology, pediatric and psychiatry.