OBJECTIVES Breaking the skin when applying scalp electroencephalographic (EEG) electrodes creates the risk of infection from blood-born pathogens such as HIV, Hepatitis-C, and Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease. Modern engineering principles suggest that excellent EEG signals can be collected with high scalp impedance ( approximately 40 kOmega) without scalp abrasion. The present study was designed to e...

Skin impedance at acupuncture points (APs) has been used as a diagnostic/therapeutic aid for more than 50 years. Currently, researchers are evaluating the electrophysiologic properties of APs as a possible means of understanding acupuncture's mechanism. To comprehensively assess the diagnostic, therapeutic and mechanistic implications of acupuncture point skin impedance, a device capable of rel...

OBJECTIVE Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is a nonpharmacological intervention used to manage pain using skin surface electrodes. Optimal electrode placement is unclear. We hypothesized that better analgesia would occur if electrodes were placed over sites with lower skin impedance. Optimal site selection (OSS) and sham site selection (SSS) electrode sites on the forearm were...

OBJECTIVES A system is being developed for measurement of biologic active points (BAPs) in humans using a modified dry electrode. The BAPs measuring system analyzed the electrical characteristics and searched for the position of BAPs using modified dry electrodes. SUBJECTS Skin electrical resistance at BAPs and non-BAPs was examined with a modified electrode system for healthy male subjects (...

OVERLAPPING OF MERIDIAN AND VEIN A superficial vein named the median vein located on the midline of the anterior forearm is a common site for phlebotomy. It is rather parallel to the invisible PC4 and pericardial meridian (figure 1), although individual mappings of the vein are not uniform. The veins have thin elastic walls and blood flowing inside; electrically they are very conductive. Mechan...

Frequency-difference electrical impedance tomography (fdEIT) reconstructs frequency-dependent changes of a complex impedance distribution. It has a potential application in acute stroke detection because there are significant differences in impedance spectra between stroke lesions and normal brain tissues. However, fdEIT suffers from the influences of electrode-skin contact impedance since cont...

The origin of electrical burns under gel-type surface electrodes is a controversial topic that is not well understood. To investigate the phenomenon, we have developed an excised porcine skin+gel model. In the present paper, we describe methods to detect these burns in the skin+gel model in an effort to understand the genesis of these burns. Burns were induced by severe electrical stimulation a...

OBJECTIVE Sympathetic stimulation leads to a change in electrical skin impedance. So far it is unclear whether this effect can be used to measure the effects of anaesthetics during general anaesthesia. The aim of this prospective study is to determine the electrical skin impedance during induction of anaesthesia for coronary artery bypass surgery with fentanyl and etomidate. METHODS The elect...

OBJECTIVES To test whether electrical skin impedance at each of three acupuncture points (APs) is significantly lower than at nearby sites on the meridian (MP) and off the meridian (NP). DESIGN Two instruments - Prognos (MedPrevent GmbH, Waldershof, Germany), a constant-current (DC) device, and PT Probe (designed for this study), a 100-Hz sinusoidal-current (AC) device-were used to record ele...