• Korean Journal of Oriental Medicine
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.33-44
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• 2010

Pulse diagnosis is considered one of the most important diagnostic methods in traditional Korean medicine. Nonetheless, there have been troubles of using pulse diagnosis practically, for the lack of its differential standards and standardized terminology. Rapid pulse belongs to the several traditional pulse types. Rapid pulse was first mentioned in the chinese medical book Haungdineijin that matched it to the fever as well as yang in the human body. Meanwhile, chinese doctors in Ming Ching dynasty of China suggested that rapid pulse meant more of the yin, cold-related reaction than yang and fever. In this study, we organized the past arguments of the rapid pulse and went back tracking what biological activities could be possibly linked to the rapid pulse. Thus, we figured out that the inflammatory mechanism has a close connection with the rapid pulse. The definition of the rapid pulse in Haungdineijin was indicating the acute inflammatory response, while in Ming Ching dynasty, it indicated the chronic inflammation. This is the deficiency-excess pattern of the rapid pulse. Furthermore, we discussed the nonexpression pattern of the rapid pulse which could be happened in case of the heat stroke, etc.