The distribution of transcutaneous CO2 emission and correlation with the points along the pericardium meridian.

This study aimed to understand energy metabolism distribution along the pericardium meridian and verify the correlation between the body surface (points), and classic meridian theory. A highly sensitive CO(2) instrument was used to measure the transcutaneous CO(2) emission at 13 points along the pericardium meridian line (12 points on the line and one point beyond the line) and 13 control points beside them. Results showed that the distribution of transcutaneous CO(2) emission is highly related to the position on the body. Transcutaneous CO(2) emission is significantly higher at P7 and P3, than the control points beside them. The points along the meridian and the points beside them were clustered with relative distance by SAS statistics software. Two distance matrixes were then obtained. The correlation coefficients between the points along the line and between the control points were calculated. The results showed that the 13(th) point beyond the line was far from the 12 points on the line (distance, 0.24), while acupoints on the line clustered earlier when compared with the non-acupoints. The average correlation coefficients among the acu-points was 0.65 which was significantly higher than 0.56, among the non-acupoints. No such characteristics were found among the control points. It was concluded that there is a strong correlativity of energy metabolism activity between the body surfaces along the meridian, and an even stronger correlativity between the acupoints on the meridian.