Visualization Techniques for Tongue Analysis in Traditional Chinese Medicine

Visual inspection of the tongue has been an important diagnostic method of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Clinic data have shown significant connections between various viscera cancers and abnormalities in the tongue and the tongue coating. Visual inspection of the tongue is simple and inexpensive, but the current practice in TCM is mainly experience-based and the quality of the visual inspection varies between individuals. The computerized inspection method provides quantitative models to evaluate color, texture and surface features on the tongue. In this paper, we investigate visualization techniques and processes to allow interactive data analysis with the aim to merge computerized measurements with human expert's diagnostic variables based on five-scale diagnostic conditions: Healthy (H), History Cancers (HC), History of Polyps (HP), Polyps (P) and Colon Cancer (C)

Quantification of tongue colour using machine learning in Kampo medicine

AbstractIntroductionThe evaluation of tongue colour has been an important approach to examine human health in Kampo medicine (traditional Japanese medicine) because the change in tongue colour may suggest physical or mental disorders. Several tongue colour quantification methods have been published to objectify clinical information among East Asian countries. However, reliable tongue colour analysis results among Japanese test persons are limited because of a lack of quantitative evaluation of tongue colour. We aimed to use advances in digital imaging processing to quantify and verify clinical data tongue colour diagnosis by characterising differences intongue features.MethodsThe DS01-B tongue colour information acquisition system was used to extract tongue images of 1080 Japanese test subjects. Evaluation of tongue colour, body and coating was performed by 10 experienced Kampo medicine physicians. The acquired images were classified into five tongue body colour categories and six tongue coating colour categories based on evaluations from 10 physicians with extensive Kampo medicine experience. K-means clustering algorithm was applied as a machine learning (the study of pattern recognition by computational learning) method to the acquired images to quantify tongue body and coating colour information.ResultsTongue body (n=550) and tongue coating (n=516) colour samples were classified and analysed. Clusters consisting of five tongue body colour categories and six tongue coating colour categories were experimentally described in the CIELAB colour space. Statistical differences were evident among the clinically primary tongue colours.ConclusionsClinically important tongue colour differences in Kampo medicine can be visualised by applying machine learning to tongue images taken under stable conditions. This has implications for developing globally unified, reliable tongue colour diagnostic criteria which could be used to explore the relevance between clinical status and tongue colour

Descriptions of qi deficiency and qi stagnation in traditional East Asian medicine: A comparison of Asian and Western sources

Introduction - In a previous study, evidence was found of the variability of signs/symptoms (s/s) of blood stasis syndrome among texts of Chinese and Asian origin and English language texts including evidence of the differences between non-Asian and Asian patients. In the current study the diagnostic patterns of qi deficiency (QD) and qi stagnation (QS) were examined to see if similar results could be found. Methods - The study consisted of two phases – a search of libraries and a search of electronic databases, and searching for texts describing QD and QS s/s ensuring inclusion of Asian origin texts (principally Chinese) and Western origin texts. More commonly mentioned s/s were compared for each type of source and across all sources. Results - Study one: From the 21 included QD texts, six s/s were generally agreed upon with three more commonly mentioned in Western origin texts, three more commonly mentioned in Chinese origin texts. From the 17 included QS texts, three s/s were more generally agreed upon with three more commonly mentioned in Western origin texts. Study two: Comparing s/s in 13 QD studies, five were mentioned by more than half the studies. Comparing six QS studies, six s/s were more generally agreed upon. In a comparison of s/s for QD mentioned by Western and Chinese origin texts and the Asian studies, three were mentioned by >50% sources, one more often by Chinese texts, three more often by Western texts and one more often by Asian studies. In a comparison of s/s for QS mentioned by Western and Chinese origin texts and the Asian studies, two were mentioned by >75%, two more often by Western texts and two more often by Asian studies. Conclusion - English language texts and studies describing QD and QS s/s were examined. Evidence of agreement on a few s/s were identified. English origin texts showed differences in texts originating from Asia, which may support the hypothesis that QD and QS may manifest differently among Western and Asian patients

高齢者の健康管理におけるウェアラブルデバイスと中国伝統医学の役割

早大学位記番号:新8258早稲田大

Advances in automated tongue diagnosis techniques

This paper reviews the recent advances in a significant constituent of traditional oriental medicinal technology, called tongue diagnosis. Tongue diagnosis can be an effective, noninvasive method to perform an auxiliary diagnosis any time anywhere, which can support the global need in the primary healthcare system. This work explores the literature to evaluate the works done on the various aspects of computerized tongue diagnosis, namely preprocessing, tongue detection, segmentation, feature extraction, tongue analysis, especially in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). In spite of huge volume of work done on automatic tongue diagnosis (ATD), there is a lack of adequate survey, especially to combine it with the current diagnosis trends. This paper studies the merits, capabilities, and associated research gaps in current works on ATD systems. After exploring the algorithms used in tongue diagnosis, the current trend and global requirements in health domain motivates us to propose a conceptual framework for the automated tongue diagnostic system on mobile enabled platform. This framework will be able to connect tongue diagnosis with the future point-of-care health system