• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.191-200
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• 2020

The purpose of this pilot study was to examine the effect of tongue color change due to food ingestion on tongue diagnosis by both Korean Medicine doctors and digital tongue diagnosis system. In order to obtain objective and quantitative data, we used digital camera to collect the data. Prior to our investigation, we conducted a brief survey of 26 Korean Medicine doctors and found out that tongue diagnosis is frequently used and food-stained tongue could be commonly observed in clinics. Depending on their color, viscosity, and amount of intake, various foods caused stains with different colors and thicknesses. Also, duration and amount of food stain on tongue were different from person to person. Since coffee-stained tongue was the most frequently observed one in clinics according to the survey, we used coffee to evaluate the effect of food-stained tongue on tongue diagnosis. Korean Medicine doctors tended to interpret coffee-stained tongue as having yellow tongue coat but their judgement on tongue body color did not differ in spite of the coffee stains. Meanwhile, tongue diagnosis system algorithm tended to judge coffee-stained tongue as having normal but yellowish tongue coat and reddish tongue body. Altogether, food color on tongue can influence tongue diagnosis outcomes. Further research is needed in order to develop more efficient tongue diagnosis algorithm and digital medical service system.

• The Journal of the Society of Korean Medicine Diagnostics
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.215-223
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• 2013

Objectives Although tongue diagnosis is one of major diagnostic methods in east Asian traditional medicine, the standard of normal tongue color have not established. So we tried to suggest the method to establish the standard of normal tongue color range and the pilot data about the normal range. Materials and methods: 22 precedent study papers that presented the numerical data of normal (light red) tongue color were analyzed. At the same time, 46 adult people tongue color data were also collected and analyzed. Results Precedent studies showed remarkable fluctuations of the range of normal tongue color. Collected tongue color data of the 46 people showed mean Hue value 2 and standard deviation 14 in HSB system. Additionally, 3 ways of standard establishment for normal tongue color were suggested. Conclusion We suggest statistical method as a reasonable method for tongue color standard establishment and $2{\pm}14$ as a reference Hue value for normal tongue color.

• Journal of Sasang Constitutional Medicine
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2010

1. Objectives: This study was performed to research the relationship between Sasang Constitution and characteristics of tongue diagnosis based on Donguisusebowon's Experience prescriptions(經驗方). 2. Methods: We searched tongue diagnosis factors in Donguisusebowon and classified this. Based on Donguisusebowon's Experience prescriptions(經驗方), we find tongue diagnosis factors in 6 contemporary Oriental medicine prescription books. 3. Results: Most So-eumin has white thin tongue coating and clear redish tongue color. Yellow tongue coatings are found in symptoms for Yinjinho-tang(Yinchenhao-tang), Soseungki-tang(Xiaochengqi-tang), Daeseungki-tang(Dachengqi-tang). Shortened Tongue is found in So-eumin's experience prescription and So-yangin's treat histroy. It didn't shown that So-eumin's Semen Crotonis included 6 prescritions' factors of tongue diagnosis. So-yangin's white tongue coating is found in Hyungbangpaedok-san(Jingfangbaidu-san), Sipjo-tang(Shizao-tang), Sosiho-tang(Xiaocihu-tang), Shinki-hwan(Shenqi-wan). Most of other So-yangin's tongue coatings are Yellowish and tongue color is deep red. Tae-eumin have thin white tongue coating at the Mahuang-tang(Mahuang-tang). Red tongue color and drying tongue are found at Jowiseungki-tang(Tiaoweichengqi-tang)Daesiho-tang(Dacihu-tang)Saengmaek-san(Shengmai-san) 4. Conclusions: Following So-eumin's Experience prescriptions, So-eumin's tongue color is clear red and tongue coatings are thin white and greasy. Following So-yangin's Experience prescriptions, So-yangin's tongue color is deep red and tongue coatings are yellowish and scarce except Exterior cold disease. And So-yangin has specific symptom of irritability, oral sores. Tae-eumin's tongue has two sides of white thin tongue coatings and Red and drying tongue.

• The Journal of the Society of Korean Medicine Diagnostics
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.47-54
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• 2011

In traditional Korean medicine, inspection of the tongue is an important method of making medical diagnoses and determining prognosis. We surveyed the fluorescence characteristics of the tongue coat in the ultraviolet light. The tongue coat comprises micro-organisms, blood metabolites, leukocytes from periodontal pockets, large amounts of desquamated epithelial cells released from the oral mucosa and different nutrients. In the ultraviolet light tissues of the oral cavity generally emit weak red or green fluorescence, which is not easily seen by the human eye, but is readily detected. This fluorescence has been proved to be due to the production of porphyrins by oral micro-organisms. While the composition of motile micro-organisms on the dorsum of the tongue is not constant, variations also occur persistingly in the fluorescence characteristics of the tongue coat. But because live bacteria contain a variety of intracellular biomolecules that have specific excitation and emission wavelength spectra characterizing their intrinsic fluorescence, the tongue coat emits fluorescence. the tongue itself, on the other hand, emits very weak or not fluorescence. In conclusion, we suggests that the uncoated tongue area be eliminated from the coated tongue area with the difference between the fluorescence characteristics of the tongue and that of the tongue coat.

• Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.149-157
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• 2013

Objectives This study was designed to: (1) investigate the clinical feature of tongue diagnosis, (2) make an observation of significant changes in tongue diagnosis according to the patient's physical condition and laboratory result and (3) identify clinical efficacy of tongue diagnosis. Methods 300 patients' tongue diagnosis results were analyzed and the patients were divided to each group according to the physical condition and laboratory result. Then, chi-square test was performed to assess statistical significance between tongue diagnosis results of each group. Results As a result of analyzing the spread of tongue diagnosis according to the patient's physical condition and laboratory result, 18 groups had statistical significance related to specific tongue color and tongue coating. Conclusions Even if there would be possible misinterpretations in one-to-one match between the tongue diagnosis and certain diseases, we identified that tongue diagnosis results were changed somewhat related to patient's physical condition with some tendency and tongue diagnosis could be used for meaningful clinical diagnostic tool.

• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.96-101
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• 2015

A tongue coating evaluation method for WTCI(Winkel Tongue Coating Index) is proposed in this paper, which is used as the diagnostic criteria in the tongue diagnosis. This method uses the color channel analysis and tongue coating extraction from the ultraviolet tongue image. Proposed method analyzes the histogram distribution of the respective color channel for extracting a tongue coating, and performs the verification test from the selected color channel in the tongue coating extraction. Also, Objectivity of the tongue diagnostic criteria is verified by the artificial sample and real-tongue image experiments. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed Computerized Assistant WTCI Evaluation method, after verifying a measurement accuracy by using the artificial sample images, and applying to the various real-tongue image of subjects. As a result, the proposed WTCI method is very successful.

• The Journal of the Society of Korean Medicine Diagnostics
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.149-158
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• 2011

Objectives: The objective of this study is to compare the colour intensity of tongue body and that of tongue coat under the visible light and the ultraviolet light. Methods: We selected 7 subjects with completely or partially peeled tongue coat among the recruited 94 adults for the experiment. We took each tongue picture under the visible light and the ultraviolet light (315-400 nm) and then extracted sample images from the tongue body and tongue coat regions. Mean, median and mode of colour intensity from the sample images were calculated in 256 RGB system. Results: The green and the blue colour intensities of the tongue coats were significantly higher than those of the tongue bodies under the visible light. In all channels, the red, green and blue, the colour intensities of the tongue coats were significantly higher than those of the tongue bodies under the ultraviolet light. The colour differences between tongue coats and tongue bodies under the ultraviolet light were significantly higher than the colour differences under the visible light. Especially the colour difference under the ultraviolet light was highest in the green channel. Conclusions: We suggested that green colour image of the RGB system taken under the ultraviolet light could be used for more easy separating tongue coat region from tongue body.

• The Journal of the Society of Stroke on Korean Medicine
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2008

Objectives : We questioned whether the tongue diagnosis is effective for judging seriousness of cerebrovascular accidents. This study is about the relationship between tongue diagnosis and National Institute of Health Stroke Scale(NIHSS) in acute stroke patients. Methods : 738 subjects were recruited from the patients admitted to the department of internal medicine at Kyung-Hee University oriental medical center, Kyung-Hee University East-West Neo Medical Center, Kyungwon university Incheon oriental medical center, Kyungwon university Songpa oriental medical center and DongGuk university Ilsan oriental medical center from April 2007 to August 2008. We looked at the tongue as in three dimensions of tongue color, tongue fur color and tongue body. And, we calculated NIHSS means according to the subtypes of three dimensions. Results : 1. In the Tongue color, from the most commom to least common colors were pale red, red, pale, bluish purple, and ect. The NIHSS mean score of red is significantly higher than pale and pale red. 2. In the Tongue fur color, white fur was the most common, and then yellow fur, etc. There is no significant difference among three subtypes in the NIHSS mean score. 3. In the Tongue body, etc. is the most common, followed by teeth-marked tongue, enlarged tongue, blood patchy tongue, and mirror tongue. The NIHSS mean score of teeth-marked tongue is significantly lower than blood patchy tongue and mirror tongue. Conclusions : The tongue color and the tongue body are useful indexes for judging seriousness of cerebrovascular accidents presented by NIHSS. But in our study, the tongue fur color was not useful. Further study is necessary on the tongue fur.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.56 no.11
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• pp.2051-2057
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• 2007

In Oriental medicine, the status of a tongue is the important indicator to diagnose one's health like physiological and clinicopathological changes of inner parts of the body. The method of tongue diagnosis is not only convenient but also non-invasive and widely used in Oriental medicine. However, tongue diagnosis is affected by examination circumstances a lot like a light source, patient's posture and doctor's condition. To develop an automatic tongue diagnosis system for an objective and standardized diagnosis, segmenting a tongue is inevitable but difficult since the colors of a tongue, lips and skin in a mouth are similar. The proposed method includes preprocessing, graph-based over-segmentation, detecting positions with a local minimum over shading, detecting edge with color difference and estimating edge geometry from the probable structure of a tongue, where preprocessing performs down-sampling to reduce computation time, histogram equalization and edge enhancement. A tongue was segmented from a face image with a tongue from a digital tongue diagnosis system by the proposed method. According to three oriental medical doctors' evaluation, it produced the segmented region to include effective information and exclude a non-tongue region. It can be used to make an objective and standardized diagnosis.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.242-254
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• 2023

Although upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) are common diseases, there have been no studies of their relationship with the indices obtained from tongue image analyses. The purpose of this study was to identify a tongue index through an analysis of tongue images (TIs) showing significant changes before and after treatment in patients with URTIs. A computerized tongue image acquisition system was developed to acquire TIs from subjects in the same environment. An image was taken from each of 39 URTI patients and 39 healthy controls. For the patients, images were acquired before and after treatment to identify changes. The tongue area was classified into a tongue body and a tongue coating, and the coating ratio between the two areas, the average value of the colour of each area, and teeth marks were calculated. No significant difference was observed in age or sex between the URTI patients and control participants. Heart rates were slightly different. The analysis of TIs showed that the luminance of the tongue coating and the coating area ratio were decreased, while the reddish value of the tongue body at the centre area increased as the treatment progressed. Tongue coating and body in URTIs had different colour and shape from those in the normal. It is expected that this result will contribute not only to the objectification of traditional Chinese medicine but also to diagnostic methods that do not involve face-to-face physician visit during the pandemic.