• 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 the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.51 no.11
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• pp.221-228
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• 2014

The color and shape of the tongue reflect the physiological and clinico-pathological condition of the body. Recently, various tongue image acquisition devices have been developed for accurate diagnosis based on quantitative and objective tongue features. Since a color information is essential for tongue diagnosis, the performance of an illuminator is very important for the tongue image acquisition device. In this study, we developed an indirect illumination, which is possible to improve a homogeneity of light intensities on the tongue surface, and evaluated its performances. In order to realize the indirect illumination (II), a semi-ellipsoidal solid structure (SESS) for the light reflex was located in the system, and two high-brightness white LEDs were placed for illuminating the areas under frontal camera in the SESS. The tongue surface was illuminated by reflected light from the SESS. The light homogeneity induced by three different illuminations including the II was evaluated by calculating coefficient of variation (CV) of illuminance of five regions. The II showed less than 0.01 of CV and the direct illumination (DI) and the direct illumination with a light diffusion plate (DILDP) showed 0.16 and 0.13, respectively. The reflexed pixel ratios of tongue phantom images show 5.76%, 4.22%, 1.79% for the DI, the DILDP and the II, respectively. The homogeneity of a tongue phantom was evaluated by calculating CV of mean pixel values of six different tongue regions, and showed less than 0.06 in the II. If the II technique apply to tongue diagnosis system, it is expected to improve diagnostic accuracy in clinic.

• Journal of Korean Traditional Oncology
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.13-23
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• 2022

Objective: The purpose of this review is to analyze the clinical studies on tongue diagnosis in cancer patients. Methods: Domestic and foreign databases were used, such as Pubmed, google scholar, Wanfang med online, Scopus, and OASIS. Searching keywords were tongue diagnosis, tongue color, tongue fur, tongue inspection, cancer, tumor, neoplasm, carcinoma, etc. Studies on tongue diagnosis in cancer patients were included. The published year was limited from 2000 to June 2022. Results: Thirteen studies were enrolled. All selected studies were cross-sectional studies. Cancer patients tend to have a dark and blue-purple tongue, thick fur, yellow fur, fissure tongue, and red dots on the tongue compared with non-cancer patients. With the aggravation of cancer, the rate of patients having dark or blue, or purple tongues increased, and the patients' sublingual veins became wide and tortuous. Conclusion: This study suggests that cancer patients tend to have distinct features of tongue diagnosis. Further researches are warranted.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.826-832
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• 2016

In this paper, we propose a tongue diagnosis system for determining the presence of specific taste crack area as a first step in the digital tongue diagnosis system that anyone can use easily without special equipment and expensive digital tongue diagnosis equipment. Training DB was developed by the Haar-like feature, Adaboost learning on the basis of 261 pictures which was collected in Oriental medicine. Tongue candidate regions were detected from the input image by the learning results and calculated the average value of the HUE component to separate only the tongue area in the detected candidate regions. A tongue area is separated through the Connected Component Labeling from the contour of tongue detected. The palate regions were divided by the relative width and height of the tongue regions separated. Image on the taste area is converted to gray image and binarized with each of the average brightness values. A crack in the presence or absence was determined via Connected Component Labeling with binary images.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.27 no.3 s.67
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• pp.201-211
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• 2006

Background: Although several efforts have been made recently to grade the severity of sublingual veins, these methods still meet some problems: clinicians' subjectivity and diversity of lighting conditions. Objectives: The purpose of our study was to quantify the severity of sublingual veins using CDs (color differences), and to verify clinical validity of the parameters of sublingual veins using CDs. Methods: We photographed the inferior surface of subjects' tongue from 74 subjects. CDs were computed through two sets of mean $L^*a^*b^*$ values extracted from BRC (black reference color) and the inferior surface of the tongue. We assumed that SVI (sublingual veins index) normalized percentage of a reciprocal of CDs between BRC and the inferior surface of the tongue including sublingual veins and BISV (black index of sublingual veins) percentage of a reciprocal of CDs between BRC and the main trunk of sublingual veins could be applied as quantitative parameters of sublingual veins and examined whether there are meaningful correlations between CDs and subjective grading by the clinicians or not. Results: There were high positive correlations of SVI and BISV to clinician evaluation respectively (r=0.715, 0.634). We computed a multiple regression equation which includes SVI and BISV as independent factors $(r^2=0.60);\;Y=0.711+0.046X_1+0.205X_2$ (Y: the severity of sublingual veins, $X_1:\;SVI,\;X_2:\;BISV$). Conclusions: We conclude that the severity of sublingual veins can be quantified through SVI and BISV, minimizing the clinicians' subjectivity and the diversity of lighting conditions.

• Journal of Korean Medical classics
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.427-431
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• 2006

From 51 monographs of case record in Qing Dynasty, we chose 29 monographs in which tongue diagnosis applied to Warm disease. Then extracted all the case records and got 488 cases from them. In according to the classification of tongue diagnosis in teaching material of TCM diagnosis of higher TCM schools education, we had a statistic analysis on the 488 cases. Results show that the recording rate of tongue coating was highest, 65.16%. From high to low sequentially, the frequency of different fur was yellow fur, white fur and black fur. During $1850{\sim}1911$ of Qing Dynasty, the description of tongue coating changed that the proportion of white fur, yellow fur and compound fur was increased. On the contrary, the proportion of black fur was decreased. The recording rate of the color of tongue was 23.16%, in which the rate of red tongue and crimson tongue were higher. The recording rate of fur character was 37.7%. During $1850{\sim}1911$ of Qing Dynasty, the recording rate of greasy fur was increased to the first. The application of tongue diagnosis involves the warm-heat species of Warm Disease, damp-heat species of Warm Disease and pestilence.

• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.45-49
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• 2018

Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the quantitative strain elastography of tongue carcinoma using intraoral ultrasonography. Materials and Methods: Two patients with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) who underwent quantitative strain elastography for the diagnosis of tongue lesions using intraoral ultrasonography were included in this prospective study. Strain elastography was performed using a linear 14 MHz transducer (Aplio 300; Canon Medical Systems, Otawara, Japan). Manual light compression and decompression of the tongue by the transducer was performed to achieve optimal and consistent color coding. The variation in tissue strain over time caused by the compression exerted using the probe was displayed as a strain graph. The integrated strain elastography software allowed the operator to place circular regions of interest (ROIs) of various diameters within the elastography window, and automatically displayed quantitative strain (%) for each ROI. Quantitative indices of the strain (%) were measured for normal tissues and lesions in the tongue. Results: The average strain of normal tissue and tongue SCC in a 50-year-old man was 1.468% and 0.000%, respectively. The average strain of normal tissue and tongue SCC in a 59-year-old man was 1.007% and 0.000%, respectively. Conclusion: We investigated the quantitative strain elastography of tongue carcinoma using intraoral ultrasonography. Strain elastography using intraoral ultrasonography is a promising technique for characterizing and differentiating normal tissues and SCC in the tongue.

• 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.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.175-182
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• 2014

Development of an objective diagnosis index for diagnosing a the beginning nature of a disease is the most one of tongue diagnosis in the oriental medicine. However, previous systems have a difficult problem in the creation of objective diagnosis index, and focused on the expert system that can diagnose automatically without an oriental doctor behavior. Therefore, computerized assistant diagnosis software for calculating an optimized diagnosis index is proposed in this paper. This software is operated by the diagnosing behavior of oriental doctor. As developed software is a semi-automatic system, manual method is used to segment a tongue body. Futhermore, numerical diagnosis indices including the color information of non-tongue coating and tongue coating, WTCI are provided to oriental doctor automatically and real-timely. Also, probability estimation value for classifying no coating, thin coating, and thick coating is presented by using the tongue coating area ratio, and EMR chart can use for convenience of diagnosis. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the our developed software, after building a various tongue image from 60 subjects, we experimented on diagnosis image with our software. As a result, the developed software showed the 95% use-effectiveness of subjects.

• THE JOURNAL OF KOREAN ORIENTAL ONCOLOGY
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.89-97
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• 2003

Recently, the occurrence and death rates of cancer have increased rapidly. In oriental medicine, the tongue gives some kind of special physiological information on human body. Oriental medical doctors have used information about the color, degree of wetness and shape of the patient's tongue to determine patient's disease and body condition. This fact leads us that the tongue image is one of the most important clinical data for helping doctor's decision making. It also has significant meaning to cancer patients related with traditional theory of oriental medicine. In diagnosis and treatment of cancer, tongue diagnosis can give some prognosis and change o cancer. It also detect the sign of early stage cancer, but it cannot diagnose the kind of cancer and/or benign or malignant. Nowadays BioTechnology(BT) has developed rapidly, but there are a lot of limits(economy, accuracy, clinical significance, etc). Tongue diagnosis is very economic and practical way of diagnose and has a lot of possibility of development. The need for doctors and it also helps the development of tongue diagnosis related with cancer.