Abstract: Objective To explore the influence of season factor and syndrome differentiation on the therapeutic effect of acupoint application on pneumoconiosis. Methods From June 2021 to May 2022,a total of 360 pneumoconiosis patients hospitalized in the Department of Occupational Diseases of Zibo Institute for Occupational Disease Prevention and Control were randomly divided into the control group（n=180） and the observation group（n=180）. Symptomatic and supportive treatment such as taking oral drugs to relieve a cough,reducing phlegm and preventing asthma and intravenous drip to improve pulmonary circulation was performed on the control group.In addition to the regular treatment performed on the control group,point application theropy and dialectical classify treatments of traditional chinese medicine were performed once every 10 days for 4 h and 3 courses of treatment were performed on the observation group（continuous treatment for 30 days as 1 course）. The body mass index,airflow obstruction,dyspnea,and exercise capacity index（BODE index） score,COPD assesment test（CAT） score,clinical symptom score,the frequency of respiratory acute attack and serological index score before and after treatments of patients in both groups were followed and recorded. Results Results showed that pneumoconiosis theropy with point application theropy as the adjuvant therapy had significant effect.The improvement of BODE index score,CAT score,clinical symptom score,the frequency of respiratory acute attack and levels of INF-α and IL-8 of the observation group were significantly different from those of the control group（all P<0.05）. The summer group showed significant differences in improvement of CAT score,clinical symptom score（expectoration,breathing difficulty,character of sputum）,and INF-α from other seasons（all P<0.05）. Among syndrome differentiation of traditional Chinese medicine,the phlegm dampness impeding lung syndrome group showed significant difference in expectoration and the frequency of respiratory acute attack（all P<0.05）. The pulmonary qi deficiency syndrome group showed significant difference in improvement of INF-α level（P<0.05）. Conclusions Although point application theropy has the best effect in summer,its curative effect in other seasons is also significantly better than that of the control group. Therefore,regardless of seasons,point application theropy could achieve good curative effect as regular treatment for pneumoconiosis patients. In the observation of syndrome differentiation of traditional Chinese medicine,the clinical symptom and frequency of attack reduced significantly in the phlegm dampness impeding lung syndrome group. And the INF-α level reduced significantly in the pulmonary qi deficiency syndrome group. Results of this research could direct the clinical use of poit application theropy on pneumoconiosis patients regardless of seasons,and promote this method as effective treatment to improve clinical symptoms and delay the progress of pneumoconiosis.

Key words: Pneumoconiosis, Acupoint application, Season factor, Syndrome differentiation and typing