The acupoint name is a core term in traditional Chinese medicine and has its own mysterious and abstruse feature. Designated by the international organizations such as World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies, World Health Organization, the phonetic translation method has been adopted for the standardization of acupuncture nomenclature. But this method neglects the cultural attributes of acupoint names. The liberal translation should be considered appropriately. English translation of acupoint name should be composed of two steps, intralingual translation (exegesis) and interlingual translation. During exegesis, the methods for discriminating phonetic loan character, selecting meanings and identifying character patterns should be sufficiently used. The interlingual translation is launched only after the fully understanding of acupoint names (based on intralingual translation).
Acupuncture Points ; Terminology as Topic ; Humans ; Translations ; Language ; Translating ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional

"Jingmai binghou" (meridian symptoms) is not the original term in ancient works, and it is proposed in modern teaching materials of acupuncture. It refers to "the diseases caused by the invasion of pathogenic factors into meridians", and "diseases of the affected meridians", recorded in jingmai (Meridian) of Lingshu (Miraculous Pivot). The proposal of this term is related to the academic tendency of textbook writers and the influence of TCM policy in China. Through collating and analyzing the records of meridian disorders in ancient works, it is found that besides the classic "meridian symptoms", many zangfu disorders, the disorders along the running course of meridian based on meridian differentiation, collateral disorders and the disorders of the exterior-interior relationship of meridians should be classified as meridian disorder. In order to accurately express the rich content of "Jingmai binghou", from the perspective of terminology normalization, it is believed that the expression as "meridian-collateral dominated disease" may reflect its connotation more comprehensively.
Meridians ; Humans ; China ; Terminology as Topic ; History, Ancient ; Acupuncture Therapy/history* ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional/history*

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The development of modern palliative care in China began in the 1980s and is currently in an accelerating phase. However, inconsistencies in terminology and concepts have hindered policy-making, clinical practice, and academic research. The Terminology of Clinical Medicine (2023 edition) has determined huan-he-yi-liao () and an-ning-liao-hu () as the formal terms of "palliative care" and "hospice care", respectively. To align with these terms, this study aims to establish expert consensus definitions tailored to the Chinese context. METHODS: We systematically retrieved and collected domestic and international literature and policy documents related to the definition of palliative care, then deconstructed and analyzed the relevant conceptual elements of these definitions. Core expert panel built the initial recommended definition upon the conceptual elements and consensus definition of palliative care by the International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care (IAHPC) through two rounds of online discussions. After nomination and selection, 61 professionals in the field of palliative care in China were invited to participate in the consensus expert group. Two rounds of Delphi consultation were conducted among the consensus experts, who were asked to score their agreement using Likert scale to the items in the initial recommended definition and the definition statements of palliative care and hospice care. Agreement rate of over 80% was considered as reaching consensus for each items. The core expert panel revised the items and the statements of recommended definitions based on the results from Delphi surveys. The final recommended definitions were formulated after feedback from patient and public involvement (PPI) group members. RESULTS: The response rates for the first and second round of Delphi surveys were 83.6% and 100.0%, respectively. The agreement rates of the items and statements of the recommended definitions exceeded 90%. Accordingly, the definitions based on Chinese expert consensus are recommended. Palliative care is an active holistic approach aimed at patients of all ages suffering from life-threatening illness and their families and caregivers. It seeks to improve their quality of life by preventing, assessing, and relieving physical, psychological, social, and spiritual suffering. Hospice care is an integral part of palliative care, focusing on holistic care for patients at the end of life and their families and caregivers. Its goal is to help patients to maintain dignity and achieve a good death by alleviating physical, psychological, social, and spiritual distress without intentionally hastening or postponing death, meanwhile improve the quality of life for families and caregivers. CONCLUSIONS: This study has established the Chinese expert consensus definitions of palliative care and hospice care in China, as well as the relationship between the two. The definitions highlight the holistic nature of palliative care, providing a foundation for discipline development, clinical practice, and public communication.
Palliative Care ; Humans ; China ; Hospice Care ; Consensus ; Delphi Technique ; Terminology as Topic

Child ; Humans ; Liver Diseases ; Terminology as Topic

Many theories of acupuncture and moxibustion and treatment experience are described in the medical bamboo slips. In this paper, based on the records of () of medical bamboo slips, focusing on the questions on the nomenclature of acupoints and meridians, by the comparison of the descriptions in ( ') with other unearthed medical literature, the evolution on the nomenclature was sorted out and the rules and significance of such evolution were explored. In comparison between the evolution of the acupoint names on the head and face and that on the four limbs, the changing modes were presented and analyzed. Finally, the nomenclature of meridians and that of acupoints were compared to infer the potential factors of their own features. This preliminary exploration reflects the important significance of the comparative study of medical bamboo slips in the literature interpretation, concept understanding and theory evolution rules of meridians and acupoints.
Acupuncture ; Acupuncture Points ; Acupuncture Therapy ; Meridians ; Moxibustion ; Sasa ; Terminology as Topic

OBJECTIVE: investigate the current usage of terminologies related to acupotomy through systematic search and analyze the pros and cons of each for proposing a standard terminology. METHODS: Seven medical journal databases were searched including PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Oriental Medicine Advanced Searching Integrated System, KoreaMed, and Korean studies Information Service System using 10 candidate terminologies as searching terms. All studies published from their inception to July 26, 2017 were collected. Articles were included if the title stated one of the 10 candidate terminologies consistent with the definition of acupotomy. Priorly established frequency and consistency of each candidate terminology from medical databases were calculated and evaluated. Moreover, the pros and cons of each were analyzed to propose a standard terminology. RESULTS: A total of 112 studies in English databases, 1,129 studies in Chinese database, and 44 studies in Korean databases were included. The most frequently used terminologies were needle knife (35.71%), acupotomy (48.54%) and acupotomy (90.90%) in English, Chinese and Korean database, respectively. Overall, acupotomy and needle knife were the most frequently used. Others like acupotomology, needle scalpel, miniscalpel acupuncture and miniscalpel needle were used within 10% of the total searched literature. Acupotome, stiletto needle, sword like needle, and Xiaozhendao were rarely used. Acupotomy had the advantages of high frequency and consistency but lacked representativeness. Needle knife also showed a high frequency, but the consistency was poor. Though miniscalpel acupuncture and miniscule needle were used less frequently, they had advantages of inclusiveness and clarity. CONCLUSION A debate for standardization of the terminology is necessary. This preliminary research can provide a basic outline for the standardization consensus process, and we believe it is noteworthy to discuss miniscalpel needle and miniscalpel acupuncture along with acupotomy and needle knife on the subject.
Acupuncture Therapy ; Databases as Topic ; Reference Standards ; Research ; Terminology as Topic

This article summarizes the attribute conditions to the combination products designation from 2009 to 2018 in China,analyzes the common problems of combination products attribution definition.It is hoped to be helpful for researchers and manufacturers of combination products.
China ; Equipment and Supplies ; Terminology as Topic

"Qi medicinal herbs" in China refers to a kind of regional national folk herbs related to the treatment of five labors and seven injuries,the last word of which is "Qi". Our study is to sort out and standardize the name and basic confused varieties through the establishment of " Qi medicinal herbs" VFP information database. " Qi medicinal herbs" variety sorting model of " literature research-variety survey-data mining-spatial distribution" was developed by means of literature analysis which the names and varieties of " Qi medicinal herbs" in the literature were summarized and sorted out. The relationship between the distribution of " Qi medicinal herbs" resources and the use of ethnic groups were visualized by Cytoscape 2. 8. 0 software. The information database of " Qi medicinal herbs" involved in 230 kinds of medicinal materials which including 211 species of plants( including varieties) from 66 families. Medicinal materials standard in China have 9 kinds of " Qi medicinal herbs". Among them,there are 31 kinds of " Qi medicinal herbs" with the confusion of " the different names of the same" and " the different substance of the same names". The most used ethnic groups are Tujia,Qiang and Miao. The main efficacy is clearing heat and detoxification,dispelling wind and removing dampness,etc.,and the main treatment is for injury,rheumatic arthralgia and so on. Names and varieties of " Qi medicinal herbs" among Chinese ethnic groups and folk are standardized and sorted out,which is served to promotethe " Qi medicinal herbs" reasonable protection and utilization of resources,and provide effective reference for exploring the information technology and geographical distribution of ethnic medicine and standardizing clinical medication.
China ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; standards ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Plants, Medicinal ; classification ; Qi ; Terminology as Topic

- () is the earliest and existed well-known work on acupuncture and moxibustion, with irreplaceable literature values and huge impacts on the later generations. Feiyang (BL 58) is the -connecting point of the bladder meridian and recorded 11 times in -. This book is the representative for the exploration on the acupoint nomenclature and clinical connotation. Through the investigation on the textual connotation of the specified terms and the alias of Feiyang (BL 58), it was discovered that the nomenclature of this acupoint was based on the main symptoms, the characters of the running course of meridian and acupuncture effects. It was proved that the unique property of this acupoint was as rising, dispersing and flying of meridian . In comparison of -- () of the printed edition of the Dynasty version and - (), it was found that the indications and connotation of Feiyang (BL 58) were more extensively richer than the records in teaching materials. Those study results contribute to the extension of the clinical application of this acupoint.
Acupuncture ; Acupuncture Points ; Humans ; Meridians ; Moxibustion ; Terminology as Topic

Acupoint name has rich TCM meaning and cultural connotation and its nomenclature originates from ancient Chinese. In order to clearly explore the significance of acupoint name, the exegetics is used in this study. It is found that the study on acupoint name contributed to determining the controversial acupoint locations and revealing the cultural connotation and the basic TCM theory behind the acupoint. Additionally, it helps us to understand the effect mechanisms of acupoints [Tianshu (ST 25) is either for constipation or diarrhea as an example], dig the clinical effects of acupoints, discover and rectify the mistakes in nomenclatures such as pronunciation and glyph. All of these study results benefit the accurate and comprehensive recognition on the acupoints.
Acupuncture Points ; Humans ; Medicine in Literature ; Terminology as Topic