ISO/DIS 16843-4

ISO/TC 215

Secretariat: ANSI

Date: 2025-11-28

Health informatics — Categorial structures for representation of acupuncture —

Part 4:
Meridian and collateral channels

Informatique de santé — Structures catégoriques pour la représentation de l'acupuncture —

Partie 4: Les méridiens et leurs collatéraux

DIS stage

Warning for WD’s and CD’s

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Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Scope

Normative references

Terms and definitions

Characterizing categories

Meridian and collateral

Course of the meridian

Meridian qi

Body and orifices

Physiology functions

Viscera and bowels

Pathological process-TM

Fourteen meridians

Twelve meridians

Anatomical landmark

Semantic links

Belong to

Regulate

Location of

Traverse

Connected to

Correspond to

Categorial structures diagram representing meridian and collateral

Bibliography

Foreword

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This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 215, Health informatics.

Introduction

Acupuncture therapy is widely practiced as a part of complementary and alternative medicine in many countries, both eastern and western.

A guideline for reporting acupuncture intervention in clinical trial is already provided, and a large number of clinical trials have been conducted to assess the efficiency of acupuncture therapy. However, the descriptions of meridian and collateral, as an acupuncture intervention in clinical reports, tend to be insufficient for the interpretation of heterogeneity among trials, often causing difficulties in synthesizing data in the meta-analysis. This arises from three reasons: firstly, appropriate information structure of meridian and collateral is not formulated; secondly, peculiar concepts within traditional medicine in western pacific-rim region originated in China are not considered sufficient; thirdly, semantic associations between concepts of meridian and collateral need to be explicit.

This document defines the categorial structures in the field of meridian and collateral in order to solve the existing problems.

Health informatics — Categorial structures for representation of acupuncture —

Part 4:
Meridian and collateral channels

This document specifies the categorial structure within the subject field of meridian and collateral by defining a set of domain constraints of sanctioned characteristics, each composed of a semantic link and an applicable characterizing category in order to represent the concept of meridian and collateral.

The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content constitutes requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.

ISO 1087:2019, Terminology work and terminology science — Vocabulary

ISO 17115:2020, Health informatics — Representation of categorial structures of terminology (CatStructure)

ISO/TS 23303:2020, Health informatics — Categorial structure for Chinese materia medica products manufacturing process

For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.

ISO and IEC maintain terminological databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:

• ISO Online browsing platform: available at https://www.iso.org/obp
• IEC Electropedia: available at https://www.electropedia.org/

categorial structure

minimal set of domain constraints for representing concept systems in a subject field

Note 1 to entry: Clause 6 provides further explanation.

[SOURCE: ISO 17115:2020 ,3.1.1]

category

division of sets of entities regarded as having particular shared characteristics

EXAMPLE Oral route, subcutaneous route and all other routes share characteristics particular to the category (3.2) route.

Note 1 to entry: Categories may be more or less general. Where one category (3.2) is subsumed by another, the IS A relation is asserted to obtain a hierarchy between the more specific or subsumed category (3.2) and the more general or subsuming category (3.2) . For example, the parenteral route is more general than the intravenous route.

[SOURCE: ISO/TS 23303:2020 ,3.1.2,modified]

characteristic

abstraction of a property .

EXAMPLE Fever is a characteristic symptom of flu.

Note 1 to entry: Characteristics are used for describing concepts .

[SOURCE: ISO 1087:2019 ,3.2.1, modified the example .]

semantic link

formal representation of a directed associative relation or partitive relation between two concepts

EXAMPLE Affects (with inverse be affected).

Note 1 to entry: This includes all relations except the generic relation.

Note 2 to entry: A semantic link (3.4) always has an inverse, i.e. another semantic link (3.4) with the opposite direction.

[SOURCE: ISO 17115:2020 ,3.2.5, modified]

This is a system of conduits through which qi and blood circulate, connecting the bowels, viscera, extremities, superficial organs and tissues, making the body an organic whole, the same as channels and networks, meridians or channels. See Reference ^[1].

This is the direction and the route of the meridians. See Reference ^[1].

The qi that flows through the meridians is the same as the collateral qi.

Qi is the basic element that constitutes the cosmos and, through its movements, changes and transformations, produces everything in the world, including the human body and life activities. In the field of traditional medicine, qi refers both to the refined nutritive substance that flows within the human body as well as to its functional activities. See Reference ^[1].

Body and orifices include all tissues and organs, the morphological structure, such as the head, torso and limbs, five zang-organs and six fu-organs, etc. Also skin, vessel, muscle, tendon and bone, etc. (refer to TCM thesauri).

Physiologically, the meridian and collateral serve as the pathways for qi and blood to flow and circulate in the body. Pathologically, these transmit pathogenic factors into the body. See ISO/TS 17938, Table 1.

This is the collective term for internal organs, which are also called zang-organs and fu-organs. See ISO/TS 17938 , Table 1.

EXAMPLE Five viscera, which can store and transport nutrients.

This is a process occurring as a consequence, or the induction, of the clinical finding-TM.ISO/TS 16277-1

EXAMPLE Stagnation of meridian qi, derangement of meridian qi.

This is a collective term for the twelve regular meridians plus the governor and conception vessels. See Reference ^[1].

A collective term for the three yin meridians and three yang meridians of each hand and foot, which is also the same as the twelve regular meridians. See Reference ^[1].

This is a clearly defined point on the body that can be used for defining anthropometric measurements. EN ISO 20685

EXAMPLE Tragion, top of head.

This specifies a special functionality relation between fourteen meridians4.8 and acupuncture points.

Semantic link : between fourteen meridians4.8 and acupuncture points.

NOTE Every fourteen meridians, every terminological phrase complying with this document have this semantic link .

EXAMPLE Zhongfu (LU1) belongs to lung meridian.

This specifies a more refined relationship under the relationship of affect which include positive and negative effects.

Semantic link : between meridian and collateral 4.1 and physiology functions4.5 , between meridian and collateral4.1 and pathological process-TM4.7 .

This specifies the position, site, or region of an entity or the site of a process.^[5]

Semantic link : between meridian and collateral4.1 and anatomical landmark4.10 .

NOTE Every meridian and collateral complying with this document have this semantic link .

This specifies a crossing or extension across another physical structure or area. This includes crossovers and cross-throughs ^[5]

Semantic link : between meridian qi4.3 and meridian and collateral4.1 .

This specifies a direct attachment to another physical unit, such as tendons being connected to muscles. This includes attached to and anchored to ^[5] .

Semantic link : between meridian and collateral 4.1 and body and orifices4.4 , between meridian and meridian, between collateral and collateral.

If two things or ideas correspond, the parts or information in one relate to the parts or information in the other.

This specifies a special functionality relation between twelve meridians and viscera and bowels, which are not directly attached.

Semantic link : between fourteen meridians4.8 and viscera and bowels4.6 .

EXAMPLE Lung meridian corresponds to lung.

NOTE Every twelve meridians complying with this document have this semantic link .

In the formal concept, the representation system for the subject field of meridian and collateral has semantic links to the characterizing categories as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 — Categorial structures representing meridian and collateral

Bibliography

[1] World Health Organization, International standard terminologies on Traditional Medicine in the Western Pacific Region, 2007.

[2] ISO/TS 17938:2014, Health informatics — Semantic network framework of traditional Chinese medicine language system

[3] ISO/TS 16277-1:2015, Health informatics — Categorial structures of clinical findings in traditional medicine — Part 1: Traditional Chinese, Japanese and Korean medicine

[4] EN ISO 20685:2010, 3-D scanning methodologies for internationally compatible anthropometric databases (ISO 20685:2010)

[5] UMLS