Objective To explore the regularities and features of clinical application of simplex reinforcing or reducing manipulation of filiform acupuncture needles by data mining in order to guide clinical decision in a better way.Methods A database about simplex reinforcing and reducing manipulations of filiform acupuncture needle was established first after collection

sorting

screening

type-in

and collation of the related papers

academic dissertations and theses of academic conferences published from January 1st of 1950 to January 31 of 2015by using key word "acupuncture""acupuncture and moxibustion""needle manipulation"and"filiform needle"from database of China National Knowledge Infrastructure(CNKI

a full-text database of Chinese journals)

followed by data extraction and statistical analysis.Results A total of 1 304 articles were found to meet the standards formulated in the present study.Among them

800 papers belong to the internal medicine covering apoplectic sequelae(153papers)

apoplexy(52)

headache(63)and insomnia(60)

271 to surgery involving soft tissue injury(63)and backleg pain(46);93to five-sense-organs involving nasosinusitis(14)

64 gynecology involving dysmenorrhea(13)

41 to dematology involving struma(20)

and 35 to pediatrics covering five kinds of tardy growth and five flaccid syndromes(8).These 1 304 papers contain 2 542 of simplex reinforcing and reducing manipulations

including 895 of twirling-thrusting reducing

611 of twirling-rotating reinforcing

571 of lifting-thrusting reducing

303 of lifting-thrusting reinforcing

32 of reinforcing and 32 of reducing in cooperation with patients' respiration

23open-close reducing

12open-close reinforcing

21 reducing and 16 of reinforcing achieved by inserting the needle along or against the meridian

14rapid-slow reinforcing

and 12rapid-slow reducing.Regarding the acupoint selection

distal and local acupoints are most frequently used

followed by symptoms-determined and syndrome-determined

respectively.The acupuncture needle retained time was from 0min to 45 min

and the therapeutic effect was relatively better for poststroke.The totally therapeutic effects of the simplex reinforcing and reducing manipulations were 96.07%for problems of demotology

94.19%for gynecology

96.58%for surgery

92.85%for pediatrics

91.78%for five-sense organs and 93.70%for internal medicine

respectively.Conclusion Simplex reinforcing and reducing manipulations of acupuncture has a definite effect in the treatment of different problems particularly in the internal medicine and surgery.Often

the twirling-rotating and lifting-thrusting reinforcing and reducing manipulations of acupuncture are employed in clinical practice.