Tongue Coating Thickness
Conditions
Keywords
tongue coating thickness, tongue diagnosis system, tongue coating percentage, availability, diagnostic device
Brief summary
The aim of the proposed study is to investigate the agreement between the measurement of the tongue diagnosis system (TDS) and the conventional way of tongue diagnosis about the tongue coating thickness (TCT) in the tongue diagnosis of the traditional Korean medicine (TKM).
Detailed description
Tongue diagnosis is one of the important diagnostic techniques to examine the physiologic functions and pathologic changes of the internal organs in TKM. However, traditional tongue diagnosis has inevitable limitations because of the clinician's subjectivity and environmental factors influencing on the diagnostic results. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the availability of the tongue diagnosis system (TDS). The aim of the this study is to investigate the agreement between the measurement of TDS and the conventional way of tongue diagnosis about TCT in the tongue diagnosis of TKM. So, we will assess the agreement between the measurement of TDS and the final diagnosis of 5 clinicians with five or more years of clinical experience about TCT. Additionally, we will evaluate the reproducibility of TDS. In the 2nd visit, taking tongue images of each patient with TDS will be performed again at 30 minute-intervals in the same way. And then, we will compare the two TDS measurements of each patient about TCT. After twice examination of TDS, the weight of tongue coating (mg) will be measured quantitatively by tongue scraping to analyze the correlation between the weight of tongue coating and the measurements of TDS. In addition, after the collection of 60 patients' tongue images is completed, we will ascertain the validity of the five clinicians for diagnosing the TCT by assessing the inter-and intra-rater reliability of the five clinicians.
Interventions
None listed
Sponsors
Korea Health Industry Development Institute
Study design
Time perspective
PROSPECTIVE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
20 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Age 20 years or older * One who meet the Rome III criteria for functional dyspepsia * One who is able to read, write, hear, see something * One who agree on consent form
Exclusion criteria
* Mental disorders * Pregnancy * Severe systemic organ diseases such as cancer * Infectious or other serious consumptive diseases * Geographic tongue * One who cannot open his/her mouth or protrude his/her tongue
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| tongue coating thickness(TCT) by tongue diagnosis system | 2nd visit (1st visit is for screening) | In the 2nd visit, Tongue coating thickness(TCT) will be assessed by tongue coating percentage(%)from TDS measurements. In the advanced study, 29.06% is a cut-off point to separate no coating and thin coating, and 63.51% is a cut-off point to separate thin coating and thick coating. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| tongue coating thickness(TCT) by the five clinicians | After completing the collection of 60 patients' tongue images | After the collection of 60 patients' tongue images is completed, 5 clinicians with five or more years of clinical experience will assess the TCT of 60 patients with 60 images obtained by TDS. In order to decide the final diagnosis of the 5 clinicians as a gold standard, if we have a disagreement among them, we will agree to the views of the majority. |
| the weight of tongue coating | 2nd visit (1st visit is for screening) | The weight of tongue coating (mg); It will be measured quantitatively to analyze the correlation between the tongue coating percentage measured with TDS and the weight of tongue coating obtained by tongue scraping(Yaegaki's method). |
Countries
South Korea
Contacts
Primary ContactJinsung Kim, doctorate
Outcome results
None listed