The direction of echo sensation of each acupoint was examined on the patients who showed obvious meridian phenomenon.
The heart meridian and large intestine meridian were chosen. Echo sensation propagating both directions, i. e. afferently and efferently, was seen most often, then afferently only and efferent only followed.
The direction of echo sensation did not neccesarilycoincide with that of meridian stream.

The term, propagated sensation along the channels (PSC) means the peculiar sensation expeerienced by some people along thier meridians when given acupunctural stimulation of acupoints.
In the present study, the incidence of PSC in outpatients who were undergoing acupuncture treatment was investigated.
Low frequency electrical stimulation was performed through press needles at twenty-six points: the twelve terminal points of the twelve regular meridians and the Inner-Zhiyin points of both sides. PSC was assessed on a four-grade basis after the manner carried out in China.
The incidence of PSC was significantly high among the outpatients compared with that among healthy youth. Patients with hypertension or posttraumatic neck syndrome showed higher incidence of PSC than the other patients.

BACKGROUNDTo study the molecular biology of Xinjiang hemorrhagic fever (XHF) viruses, to explore its relationship with other Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever viruses, analyzing the epidemic origin and the tendency of geographic distribution of XHF.

METHODSThe S partial segment from the patient and tick samples collected in 2001 and 2002 was tested by RT-PCR, the positive samples were sequenced directly. The nucleotide homology of S partial segment as well as the whole segments were analyzed and the phylogenetic tree of S and M gene segments was drawn by computer.

RESULTSAll compared sequences of S partial segments from the patient and tick samples showed a high homology of nucleotide sequences. Phylogenetic tree divided all the analyzed viruses into three groups; Europe, African and Asian group. The Asian group can be divided further into another two branches: the middle Asian branch and the Chinese branch. All the Chinese isolates were clustered into one single group and was easy to be discriminated from the other isolates. The dividing of M segments seemed not completely related to the geographic origin of the viruses.

CONCLUSIONM segment classification was not consistent to the geographic distribution of the viruses. S segments analysis showed the close relationship of genetic background between the patient isolates and the tick isolates. Besides, all the Chinese isolates have the common evolution route and the gene structure characteristics displayed the regional distribution pattern.

Animals ; China ; epidemiology ; Genetic Variation ; Hemorrhagic Fever Virus, Crimean-Congo ; classification ; genetics ; isolation & purification ; Hemorrhagic Fever, Crimean ; epidemiology ; virology ; Humans ; Molecular Epidemiology ; Phylogeny ; RNA, Viral ; genetics ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Sequence Analysis, DNA ; Ticks ; virology ; Viral Proteins ; genetics