Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research (대한의용생체공학회:의공학회지)

The Korean Society of Medical and Biological Engineering (대한의용생체공학회)
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Tongue Indices with Upper Respiratory Tract Infection for Application in Diagnostic Systems Without Face-to-face Visits

  • Woosu Choi (Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine) ;
  • Jihye Kim (Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine) ;
  • Keun Ho Kim (Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine)
  • Received : 2023.06.22
  • Accepted : 2023.07.24
  • Published : 2023.08.31
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Abstract

Although upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) are common diseases, there have been no studies of their relationship with the indices obtained from tongue image analyses. The purpose of this study was to identify a tongue index through an analysis of tongue images (TIs) showing significant changes before and after treatment in patients with URTIs. A computerized tongue image acquisition system was developed to acquire TIs from subjects in the same environment. An image was taken from each of 39 URTI patients and 39 healthy controls. For the patients, images were acquired before and after treatment to identify changes. The tongue area was classified into a tongue body and a tongue coating, and the coating ratio between the two areas, the average value of the colour of each area, and teeth marks were calculated. No significant difference was observed in age or sex between the URTI patients and control participants. Heart rates were slightly different. The analysis of TIs showed that the luminance of the tongue coating and the coating area ratio were decreased, while the reddish value of the tongue body at the centre area increased as the treatment progressed. Tongue coating and body in URTIs had different colour and shape from those in the normal. It is expected that this result will contribute not only to the objectification of traditional Chinese medicine but also to diagnostic methods that do not involve face-to-face physician visit during the pandemic.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

Funding for this study was provided by the Korea Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology and Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, grant numbers 10060251 and KSN2022130, respectively.

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