• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.113-118
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• 2000

Objectives : Stroke patients have continuously increased and many studies have been performed to predict their prognosis. Tongue Inspection is a diagnostic method that has been widely used in oriental medicine. The aim of this study was to examine if stroke patients' motor recovery might be related to tongue inspection. Methods : MBI(Modified Barthel Index) and tongue inspection of stroke patients within 3 days of onset were assessed on admission and at 10 days following admission. Results : Functional recovery was significantly better in those who showed favorable changes of tongue, especially in tongue coat color(P=0.030) and thick and thin tongue coat(P=0.092). Conclusions : The results suggest that tongue inspection can be used to predict a prognosis of early stage stroke patients.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.187-197
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• 1999

To assess the usefulness of tongue inspection for evaluating the Pattern identification in oriental medicine, we observed stroke patient's tongue and tongue coat and compared it with Pattern identification. The test group was composed of 85 acute stroke stage patients(within 72 hours of onset). Subjects were randomly selected from stroke patients admitted in the KyungHee University, Hospital of Oriental Medicine from December 1 1998 to June 30 1999. We took pictures of patient's tongue and tongue coat within 72hours from onset and checked Pattern identification at the same time. Tongues colored pale rose or red greatly outnumbered other colors. Tongue shape tended to be prickly or fissured, and tongue condition tended to be unflexible or deviated. Regarding tongue coat color, there were great amounts of yellow or clark yellow tongue coats, which were moist, thick or greasy in substance. The red tongue was significantly related to Fire-heat and deficiency of Yin syndrome, while faint white tongue to Damp syndrome(P=0.006). In terms of tongue coat, thin coat was related to Wind and Fire-heat syndromes, thick coat to Damp and Blood stasis syndrome, respectively (P=0.002). In conclusion, we thought that tongue inspection could be a useful Oriental medicine diagnosis in stroke.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.1437-1442
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• 2005

Tongue Diagnosis is the important traditional oriental medical diagnosis method that observes not only the general physiological state but also some kinds of disease. However, manual tongue diagnosis is much influenced by surrounding illumination. Therefore, Digital Tongue Inspection System(DigiTis) is needed for the quantification of objective tongue information, In this research, Tongue images of 98 malignant Neoplasm patients and 34 normal persons were collected by Digital Tongue Inspection System. Statistical analysis of tongue images and patient data indicates that cancer group has more blue-purple components in tongue body(舌質) and yellow components in tongue coating than normal group. Also, there are a lot of rose-pink components in the cancer group of second stage and blue-purple components in the cancer group of third or fourth stage. Our study shows that tongue image is a useful index for distinction between disease and health. Furthermore we need more extended research through the additional sampling and various disease.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.478-485
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• 2014

In order to the excellent differentiation of syndromes, we study on the individual characteristic factor by the inspection of face colour and tongue & the auscultation and olfaction. To the subject of diagnosis special books and diagnostics textbook of korean medicine, we arrange the individual characteristic factor by the inspection of face colour and tongue & the auscultation and olfaction. The inspection on the individual characteristic factor was analyzed the face colour, inspection of tongue. The auscultation and olfaction on the individual characteristic factor was analyzed the 25 types by the five-voice (五音) in Huang Di Nei Jing (黃帝內經). As the results, the individual characteristic factor is very important item of the four methods of diagnosis and the differentiation of syndromes. And Therefore the process on four methods of diagnosis and differentiation of syndromesis is necessary to divide the signs of individual characteristic factor and the signs of disease.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.27 no.2 s.66
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• pp.134-144
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• 2006

Tongue diagnosis is an important diagnostic method in traditional Oriental medicine. It has been especially accepted that quantitative analysis of tongue images allows the accurate diagnosis of the exterior-interior and cold-heat patterns of a patient. However, to ensure stable and reliable results, the color reproduction of such images must first be error-tree. Moreover, tongue diagnosis is much influenced by the surrounding illumination and subjective color recognition, so it has to be performed objectively and quantitatively using a digital diagnostic machine. In this study, 457 tongue images of outpatients were collected using the Digital Tongue Inspection System. Through statistical analysis, the result shows that the heat and cold patterns can be distinguished clearly based on the hue value of the tongue images. The average hue value (1.00) of the tongue's image in the cold pattern is higher than that in the heat pattern (0.99).

• Journal of Sasang Constitutional Medicine
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.156-175
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• 2007

1. Objectives and Methods This study was performed to know the relationship between Sasang Constitution and characteristics of ordinary symptoms, inspection diagnosis of face and tongue. There were 666 participants(280 men and 386 women) who answered Sasang Constitutional Checkup list and were taken pictures of faces and tongues. Sasang Constitution was diagnosed by only PSSC(Phonetic System for Sasang Constitution). Distribution of Sasang Constitution and X2 test, kappa value for agreement were calculated using SPSS 10.0. 2. Results From characteristics of ordinary symptoms' point of view, Taeeumin had loud voices, big body shapes and easily sweated themselves. They felt good after sweating and had warm hands and feet. And their upper back, shoulders and chest were, they thought, well developed. They were apt to have meals quickly and overeat themselves. Soyangin and Soeumin had thin body shapes and were difficult to sweat themselves and felt powerless after sweating. They had cold hands and feet. Especially, Soeumin was apt to have meals slowly and a little amounts. They walked so fast. Soyangin was introvert and had developed their abdomen and waist. 'Looking heavy and steady' was higher in Taeeumin, 'delicate and modest' was higher in Soeumin(42.8%) and Soyangin(36.1 %) in first impression. It was thought to be difficult to discriminate Soyangin from Soeumin in first impression and make a notion of right Soyangin's first impression. Soyangin had pinky tongue color and little tongue fur whereas Soeumin had red tongue color and whitish tongue fur. Taeeumin had whitish tongue fur too. 3. Conclusions To diagnose Sasang Constitution much effectively, PSSC results and comprehensive Sasang Constitutional Checkup list extracted from effective Questionnaire items and Face and Tongue Inspection Diagnosis are thought to be needed.

• The Journal of the Society of Korean Medicine Diagnostics
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.47-54
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• 2011

In traditional Korean medicine, inspection of the tongue is an important method of making medical diagnoses and determining prognosis. We surveyed the fluorescence characteristics of the tongue coat in the ultraviolet light. The tongue coat comprises micro-organisms, blood metabolites, leukocytes from periodontal pockets, large amounts of desquamated epithelial cells released from the oral mucosa and different nutrients. In the ultraviolet light tissues of the oral cavity generally emit weak red or green fluorescence, which is not easily seen by the human eye, but is readily detected. This fluorescence has been proved to be due to the production of porphyrins by oral micro-organisms. While the composition of motile micro-organisms on the dorsum of the tongue is not constant, variations also occur persistingly in the fluorescence characteristics of the tongue coat. But because live bacteria contain a variety of intracellular biomolecules that have specific excitation and emission wavelength spectra characterizing their intrinsic fluorescence, the tongue coat emits fluorescence. the tongue itself, on the other hand, emits very weak or not fluorescence. In conclusion, we suggests that the uncoated tongue area be eliminated from the coated tongue area with the difference between the fluorescence characteristics of the tongue and that of the tongue coat.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartB
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• v.14B no.2
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• pp.71-80
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• 2007

In this paper, We propose face type classification, tongue region extraction and tongue color analysis method for Oriental medicine diagnosis system to supply web based medical treatment information. This presents to construct system that takes super aging society and uses ocular inspection and longue diagnosis in web-based to embody this by an IT Technology as generalization and popularization of medical benefit are social requirement and supplies medical treatment information. Place that reflect living body signal of human body ordinarily and appear becomes iris or tongue, five sensory organs etc. This paper proposes classification of face type, extraction of five sensory organs for observing a person's shape and color among diseases diagnosis based on home health care that propose to develop and region extraction and color analysis etc, of tongue which intensively represents the bio-signals of human-beings. Finally, the effectiveness of this paper is verified by several experiments.

• Korean Journal of Oriental Medicine
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.89-95
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• 2008

A tongue shows physiological and clinicopathological changes of inner organs. Visual inspection of a tongue is not only convenient but also non-invasive. To develop an automat ic tongue diagnosis system for an objective and standardized diagnosis, the separation of the tongue are a from a facial image and the detection of coatings, spots and cracks are inevitable but difficult since the colors of a tongue, lips, and skin in a mouth as well as those of tongue furs and body are similar. The propose d method includes preprocessing with down-sampling and edge enhancement, over-segmentation, detecting positions with a local minimum over shading from the structure of a tongue, and correcting local minima or detecting edge with color difference. The proposed method produces the region of a segmented tongue, and then decomposes the color components of the region into hue, saturation and brightness, resulting in classifying the regions of tongue furs(coatings) into kinds of coatings and substance and segmenting them. Spots are detected by using local maxima and the variation of saturation, and cracks are searched by using local minima and the directivity of dark areas in brightness. The results illustrate the segmented region with effective information, excluding a non-tongue region and also give us accurate discrimination of coatings and the precise detection of spots and cracks. It can be used to make an objective and standardized diagnosis for an u-Healthcare system as well as a home care system.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology and Dermatology
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.118-126
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• 2007

Tongue diagnosis is a profound and special part of the whole Oriental Medicine. We examined the method, the principle and the meaning of tongue diagnosis according to a literature cited, considered a meaning of tongue diagnosis. As a result, we come to a conclusion like that. 1. Tongue is related with internal organs by meridian system, especially has a direct connection with heart and spleen. 2. The heart, a master of internal organs, has its specific opening in the tongue. The spleen, source of nutrients for growth and development, has its specific body opening in the mouth. So tongue reflects states of internal organs, Qi, blood, the constructive energy and the defensive energy. 3. When doing tongue diagnosis, we must pay attention to the position and the order of inspection of the tongue. We must diagnose by referring to a ray of light, diet, season, age, physical constitution, habit and taste, can make a accurate diagnosis. 4. We can classify constitutions, distinguish syndromes, suppose prognosis, make a prescription by using tongue diagnosis. 5. Reddened tip of the tongue represents flaring-up of the heart fire, and it means psychologic stress. Dental identations on the tongue edges represents deficiency of Qi of the spleen, and it means physiologic fatigue. 6. Through observing humidity of fur of the tongue, we can guess psychologic stress and physiologic fatigue. Through observing thickness of fur of the tongue, we can guess function of spleen and stomach.