DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Americans spend over $600 million, mostly out-of pocket, on acupuncture services each year. This number will continue to grow as the number of acupuncturists graduating from schools continues to expand. Delivering a high quality acupuncture treatment requires… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long term goal of this project is to establish the usefulness of needle torque measurements for the diagnosis and monitoring of connective tissue pathology associated with chronic musculoskeletal conditions treated by manual therapies. This project will… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long term goal of this project is improvement in the quality of acupuncture treatment. This will be accomplished by developing a tool (the Acusensor) capable of tracking acupuncture needle movement and force interac tions. The Acusensor will be applied… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this project is to develop a biomarker - the Connective Tissue Motion Measure (CTMM) - quantifying the functional behavior of perimuscular connective tissues. The differential motion between specific connect ive tissue strata will be measured during… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long term goal of this project is to develop a biomarker - the Needle Torque Test (NTT) - capable of detecting connective tissue abnormalities associated with musculoskeletal disorders. The NTT is administered by in serting an acupuncture needle into… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Connective tissue dysfunction is emerging as a potentially important, and so far mostly overlooked, factor in the pathophysiology of chronic low back pain (LBP). We have developed and tested a novel instrument (StromaGlide) and test (Connective Tissue Motion… More