Different trends of teeth marks according to qi blood yin yang deficiency pattern in patients with chronic fatigue

作者：Kim Jihye; Jung Chang Jin; Nam Dong Hyun; Kim Keun Ho^*

来源：European Journal of Integrative Medicine, 2017, 12: 122-128.

DOI：10.1016/j.eujim.2017.05.004

• Tongue diagnosis
• Teeth marks
• Deficiency pattern
• Qi blood yin yang deficiency pattern
• Chronic fatigue

Introduction: Tongue diagnosis is a convenient and non-invasive method for examining the functional condition of the body. The presence of teeth marks (TMs) on the tongue surface indicates a swollen tongue and decreased resilience of the tongue surface. The aim of this study was to investigate whether teeth mark level (TML), a novel TM indicator, is useful for determining deficiency patterns (DPs) in patients with chronic fatigue (CF).
Methods: In total, 152 participants with CF were recruited. They were classified by two Korean medicine doctors (KMDs) into the following groups: qi deficiency (n = 45), blood deficiency (n = 37), yin deficiency (n = 36), and yang deficiency (n = 34). All the participants' tongue images were obtained with a computerized tongue image analysis system after the diagnostic process. To objectively measure TMs, we calculated TMLs from the tongue images.
Results: Differences in the TMLs among the DPs were analyzed with multiple linear regression analysis. The TMLs of the clay-tongue models showed a close relationship with the number and depth of the TMs (r= 0.99 and 0.98, respectively). The TMLs showed different trends according to the DPs (P < 0.05). Tukey's multiple comparisons test revealed that the TMLs were significantly lower in the yin deficiency group than in the blood deficiency group (P < 0.01).
Conclusions: The close relationship between TML and the DPs suggests that TML has the potential to be used in clinics as a supplementary means to differentiate among syndromes in CF and to evaluate therapeutic effects and prognosis in CF.

• 出版日期2017-6