ArticleJournal of pain research2026
Core Acupoints and Acupoint Combination Patterns for Acupuncture Treatment of Discogenic Low Back Pain: A Data Mining Study.
Article in Journal of pain research, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Spatial Organization of Acupoint Selection Across Pain Conditions.Pain research & management · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Discogenic low back pain (DLBP) is a distinct subtype of chronic low back pain arising from intradiscal degeneration in the absence of nerve root compression. Previous data-mining studies on acupuncture have focused largely on lumbar disc herniation (LDH), creating a gap in evidence for DLBP-specific acupoint selection. Objective: To systematically identify acupuncture prescription rules for DLBP using data-mining techniques. Methods: Eight databases were searched for clinical studies on acupuncture for DLBP (2016-2025). We analyzed acupoint frequency, association rules, and hierarchical clustering to identify core prescription patterns. Results: A total of 57 studies involving 41 acupoints were included in the analysis. The five most frequently utilized acupoints were BL40 (Weizhong), BL25 (Dachangshu), Ashi points, EX-B2 (Jiaji), and BL23 (Shenshu). Standard treatment protocols typically involved needle retention for 30 minutes per session, administered once daily. Warm-needle acupuncture or moxibustion was incorporated in approximately 32% of the treatment regimens. Data mining identified two principal association patterns: (1) intra‑meridian pairings within the Governor Vessel (Du Meridian), and (2) synergistic combinations targeting lower‑limb acupoints. Hierarchical clustering further yielded three clinically meaningful acupoint clusters: (i) distal points for systemic meridian regulation, (ii) local lumbar points for segmental symptom control, and (iii) syndrome‑specific points guided by Traditional Chinese Medicine pattern differentiation. Notably, compared with prescriptions for lumbar disc herniation (LDH), those for discogenic low back pain (DLBP) demonstrated a stronger emphasis on local and warming interventions particularly warm‑needle acupuncture and moxibustion and less reliance on distal Gallbladder meridian points. Conclusion: This first dedicated data-mining study for DLBP reveals a distinct acupoint selection paradigm of "warming and dispersing cold, local precision", differing from the LDH pattern of "activating blood and unblocking meridians distally". These findings provide a quantitative evidence base for developing diagnosis-specific acupuncture protocols.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.