Comparative Analysis of Tongue Indices between Patients with and without a Self‐Reported Yin Deficiency: A Cross‐Sectional Study

Abstract

We investigated the hypothesis that Yin-deficient patients have a reddened tongue with less coating. We screened 189 participants aged 20 to 49 years, complaining of headache. To classify patients in terms of Yin deficiency, we used two self-reporting Yin-deficiency questionnaires (Yin-Deficiency Questionnaire and Yin-Deficiency Scale) and diagnosis by a doctor. Based on the tests, a total of 33 subjects were assigned to a Yin-deficient group and 33 subjects were assigned to a nondeficient control group. Tongue images were acquired using a computerized tongue diagnostic system, for evaluating tongue indices. The tongue coating percentage and tongue redness were calculated as the mean a⁎ value of both the whole tongue area (WT a⁎) and the tongue body area (TB a⁎). The tongue coating percentage of the Yin-deficient group (34.79 ± 10.76) was lower than that of the nondeficient group (44.13 ± 14.08). The WT a⁎ value of the Yin-deficient group (19.39 ± 1.52) was significantly higher than that of the nondeficient group (18.21 ± 2.06). However, the difference in the TB a⁎ value between the two groups was not significant. In conclusion, we verified that Yin-deficient patients had less tongue coating and tended to have a more reddish tongue than nondeficient patients.

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“…We also noticed that this increase in tongue coating was more prominent on the posterior tongue. Since a small amount of coating is one of the main diagnostic features of the HYD pattern (19), it is conceivable that CBD can ameliorate the adverse impacts of HYD in insomnia patients.…”

“…In addition to PSQI, Veillonella also showed a positive correlation with CIE-a* and diastolic BP in the present study. Since, CIE-a* indicates redness of the tongue body and yin-de cient patients are more likely to have a reddish tongue (19), it is conceivable that Veillonella is an indicator of insomnia, particularly in the presence of a yin-de cient pattern. In addition to the dominant oral microbial genera mentioned above, Peptococcus, Fusobacterium, and Porphyromonas all showed negative correlations with PSQI, Peptococcus and Fusobacterium demonstrated a negative correlation with WMT, and Porphyromonas exhibited negative and positive correlations with PR and TST, respectively.…”

“…In a previous clinical trial on 60 patients with functional dyspepsia, tongue coating percentage, as assessed by TDS, was signi cantly related with tongue coating weight, and tongue diagnoses by TDS and traditional medicine experts exhibited high agreement (18). Additionally, an earlier clinical computerized TDS study revealed that patients with a yinde cient pattern tended to have a redder tongue and a thinner tongue coating than non yin-de cient patients (19). Researchers have also recently reported that next-generation sequencing might be useful for investigating the relation between tongue diagnosis and oral microbiota.…”

Advances in automated tongue diagnosis techniques

“…Another syndrome classification-based work, conducted by Zhao et al, 85 focused on searching for its correlation with viral hepatitis. Kim et al 58 utilized statistical analysis to prove that the self-reported Yin deficient patients may have more redness in tongue and less tongue coating in comparison to non-Yin-deficient control group. Statistical analysis was further utilized to determine the relationship between ischemic stroke with and without retroflex tongue among 308 patients 86 .…”

Association between tongue coating thickness and ultraviolet fluorescence in patients with functional dyspepsia

“…In particular, the tongue coating thickness (TCT) is considered an important indicator of physiological and pathological conditions of qi. [2,3] Moreover, assessment of TCT is used in the field of dentistry, because tongue coating is not only a cause of halitosis but also a risk factor for aspiration pneumonia in edentate elderly individuals. [4]…”