The efficacy of acupuncture is recognized worldwide. However, how to pass on thousands of years treatment experience, standardize acupuncture stimulation techniques, especially how to determine the optimal dosage of acupuncture stimulation in clinical practice, has been a conundrum in acupuncture research, application and even its dissemination across the world. At present, there has been significant progress in the research of de qi. De qi can be evaluated quantitatively and its mechanism is basically clarified. The correlation between de qi and clinical outcomes has been recently confirmed through our clinical trial of treating Bell's palsy by acupuncture with de qi. Our study has found that acupuncture with de qi can significantly improve the function of facial muscles and quality of life of Bell's palsy patients. For the first time, our study highly integrates traditional de qi and modern evaluation methods, and has attracted considerable international media coverage. This study provides an example for the further in-depth research in traditional Chinese medicine and objective evaluation of the efficacy of acupuncture. Keywords acupuncture; de qi; efficacy evaluation; Bell's palsy

acupuncture  /  de qi  /  efficacy evaluation  /  Bell's palsy