Intrarater and Interrater Reliability of Infrared Image Analysis of Forearm Acupoints before and after Moxibustion

Jiali Lou; Yongliang Jiang; Hantong Hu; Xiaoyu Li; Yajun Zhang; Jianqiao Fang

doi:10.1155/2020/6328756

Intrarater and Interrater Reliability of Infrared Image Analysis of Forearm Acupoints before and after Moxibustion

Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2020 Sep 26:2020:6328756. doi: 10.1155/2020/6328756. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Jiali Lou¹, Yongliang Jiang¹, Hantong Hu², Xiaoyu Li¹, Yajun Zhang¹, Jianqiao Fang¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurobiology and Acupuncture Research, The Third Clinical Medical College, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Key Laboratory of Acupuncture and Neurology of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou 310053, China.
² The Third Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, China.

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the intrarater and interrater reliabilities of infrared image analysis of forearm acupoints before and after moxibustion. In this work, infrared images of acupoints in the forearm of 20 volunteers (M/F, 10/10) were collected prior to and after moxibustion by infrared thermography (IRT). Two trained raters performed the analysis of infrared images in two different periods at a one-week interval. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was calculated to determine the intrarater and interrater reliabilities. With regard to the intrarater reliability, ICC values were between 0.758 and 0.994 (substantial to excellent). For the interrater reliability, ICC values ranged from 0.707 to 0.964 (moderate to excellent). Given that the intrarater and interrater reliability levels show excellent concordance, IRT could be a reliable tool to monitor the temperature change of forearm acupoints induced by moxibustion.