Abstract
Objectives : DongUiBoGam is one of the representative medical literatures in Korea. We used text mining methods and analyzed the characteristics of the indications of each meridian in the second chapter of DongUiBoGam, WaeHyeong, which addresses external body elements. We also visualized the relationships between the meridians and the disease sites. Methods : Using the term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) method, we quantified values regarding the indications of each meridian according to the frequency of the occurrences of 14 meridians and 14 disease sites. The spatial patterns of the indications of each meridian were visualized on a human body template according to the TF-IDF values. Using hierarchical clustering methods, twelve meridians were clustered into four groups based on the TF-IDF distributions of each meridian. Results : TF-IDF values of each meridian showed different constellation patterns at different disease sites. The spatial patterns of the indications of each meridian were similar to the route of the corresponding meridian. Conclusions : The present study identified spatial patterns between meridians and disease sites. These findings suggest that the constellations of the indications of meridians are primarily associated with the lines of the meridian system. We strongly believe that these findings will further the current understanding of indications of acupoints and meridians.
