• 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 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.