RESUMO
Objective:By applying moxibustion to the eight confluent points in different periods of time,to observe the changes in thermal pain threshold latency of acupoints based on Fei Teng Ba Fa.Methods:A total of 468 healthy college student volunteers received moxibustion at the eight confluent points in three different periods of time,i.e.Chen (7:00-9:00),Wu (11:00-13:00) and Xu (19:00-21:00).The thermal pain threshold latency was adopted to measure the changes in pain threshold of the eight confluent points under different conditions (different periods of time,different genders,different acupoints and different states of the acupoints) based on Fei Teng Ba Fa.Results:Finally,thirty subjects dropped out and 438 subjects were included.The comparison of thermal pain threshold latencies of the eight confluent points in the same opening or closing state based on Fei Teng Ba Fa:latencies of the closing points and adjunct points were significantly different in different periods of time (P＜0.05);the latencies of the males were significantly longer than those of the females (P＜0.05);there was no significant difference in the latency between the left and right sides (P＞0.05);in the female group,there was a significant difference in the latency between the lower-limb points and the upper-limb points (P＜0.05).The comparison of thermal point threshold latencies of the eight confluent points in different opening or closing state:in the period of Wu (11:00-13:00),the latencies of the opening points were significantly longer than those of the closing points and adjunct points (P＜0.05);for men,their opening and closing points had significantly longer thermal pain threshold latencies than their adjunct points (P＜0.05);despite the gender,the latencies of the upper limb opening and closing points were significantly longer than the latency of the adjunct points (P＜0.05);in the female group,the latencies of the lower-limb opening points were significantly shorter than those of the lower-limb closing and adjunct points (P＜0.05).Conclusion:Based on Fei Teng Ba Fa,the pain thresholds of the eight confluent points vary in different periods of time,gender,acupoint location and opening/closing state,which can be taken as the evidence of making time-based acupuncture-moxibustion prescriptions.