In the past decade, there has been a significant increase in the number of studies related to the combination of acupoints for acupuncture, which has preliminarily revealed the effects and mechanisms of various acupoint combinations. However, there are still limitations. By searching and summarizing studies on the effects and mechanisms of acupoint combinations, it has been found that there are issues in this field that need to be improved, such as vague terminology definitions, uneven research interest in different methods of acupoint combinations, insufficient research on antagonistic effects, and a lack of diversity in outcome indicators for mechanism studies. This paper discusses the optimization direction for future research on acupoint combinations, aiming to effectively promote new progress in the field of formulating acupoint combinations and to facilitate the translation of research findings into clinical practice.

Transcutaneous electrical stimulation equipment is a kind of characteristic therapeutic devices developed on the basis of the integration of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) theory and modern science and technology, which is widely used in clinical practice. Significant breakthroughs have been made in the development of related devices such as transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation (TEAS) devices, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) devices, and transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) devices in recent years. Although the market for these devices is vast, there are still limitations that need to be optimized in terms of electrode materials and power supply methods, bulky instrument size, cumbersome wiring, restricted applications, and inadequate intelligent functionality. In the future, it is still necessary to further build upon the theoretical foundation of TCM acupuncture, integrate a variety of modern scientific technologies to advance the intelligence and modernization of acupuncture equipment, and thereby improving its capabilities to support clinical practice and research.

Ischemic stroke (IS) is one of the main causes inducing death and disability in adults. Because of the high recurrence rate of IS, prevention of recurrence is of great significance to this population, for which the evidence-based and effective secondary prevention strategy is an important means, and acupuncture intervention has a positive effect on its risk factors. In the present article, we reviewed the progress of researches on the mechanisms of acupuncture underlying prevention of IS relapse from the perspective of its main risk factors, namely 1) hypertension (preventing and controlling the adverse effects caused by the imbalance of blood pressure level, vascular and other tissue structures, endocrine factors and central nervous system activities in patients with hypertension after IS), 2) hypercholesterolemia (lowering serum total cholesterol, triglyceride, low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) and raising high-density lipoprotein cholesterol), 3) diabetes (regulating the secretion function of adipose tissue, activating the insulin signal transduction pathway, protecting the function of pancreatic β cells, and regulating the central nervous system functions to participate in the secondary prevention of IS), 4) smoking (relieving the symptoms of smoking cessation and reducing the smoker’s dependence on smoking by changing the internal environment, lowering the level of blood endorphin and regulating the excitability of central nervous system), 5) sleep apnea syndrome (regulating local muscle function and the excitability of the nervous system, but also affecting some organic changes as reducing tonsil swelling) and 6) obesity (lowering blood glucose and lipid, increasing the ratio of brown/white fat, reducing leptin resistance, and suppressing appetite to induce body weight loss, or directly regulate the changes of fat tissue, etc). Results shows that the acupuncture’s regulatory mechanism for IS risk factors is closely related to the neuroendocrine system, and simultaneously involves multiple targets of multiple risk factors. Due to its good efficacy and safety, acupuncture therapy is of great value for clinical promotion as an important intervention for secondary prevention.