For 5,000 years, the Chinese have used a
system of medicine based on the flow and balance of positive and negative
energies in the body.
In this
system, the appearance of the tongue is one of the measures used to classify
the overall physical status of the body, or zheng. Now, University of Missouri
researchers have developed computer software that combines the ancient
practices and modern medicine by providing an automated system for analyzing
images of the tongue.
"Knowing
your zheng classification can serve as a pre-screening tool and help with preventive medicine,"
said Dong Xu, chair of MU's computer science department in the College of
Engineering and study co-author. "Our software helps bridge Eastern and Western medicine,
since an imbalance in zheng could serve as a warning to go see a doctor. Within
a year, our ultimate goal is to create an application for smartphones that will
allow anyone to take a photo of their tongue and learn the status of their
zheng."
The
software analyzes images based on the tongue's color and coating to distinguish
between tongues showing signs of "hot" or "cold" zheng.
Shades of red and yellow are associated with hot zheng, whereas a white coating
on the tongue is a sign of cold zheng.
"Hot
and cold zheng doesn't refer directly to body temperature," said Xu, who
is also on the faculty of the Bond Life Sciences Center. "Rather, it
refers to a suite of symptoms associated with the state of the body as a
whole."
For
example, a person with cold zheng may feel chills and coolness in the limbs and
show a pale flushing of face. Their voice may have a high pitch. Other symptoms
of cold sheng are clear urine and loose stool. They also may prefer hot foods
and drinks and desire warm environments.
In
Chinese traditional medicine both hot and cold zheng can be symptoms of
gastritis, an inflammation of the stomach lining frequently caused by bacterial infection.
For the
study, 263 gastritis patients and 48 healthy volunteers had their tongues
analyzed. The gastritis patients were classified by whether they showed
infection by a certain bacteria, known as Helicobacter pylori, as well as the
intensity of their gastritis symptoms. In addition, most of the gastritis
patients had been previously classified with either hot or cold zheng. This
allowed the researchers to verify the accuracy of the software's analysis.
"Our
software was able to classify people based on their zheng status," said
study co-author Ye Duan, associate professor of computer science at MU.
"As
we continue to work on the software we hope to improve its ability," Duan
said. "Eventually everyone will be able to use this tool at home using
webcams or smartphone applications. That will allow them to monitor their zheng
and get an early warning about possible ailments."
The
study "Automated Tongue Feature Extraction for ZHENG Classification in
Traditional Chinese Medicine" was accepted for publication in the journalEvidence
Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine. The study's first author was
doctoral student Ratchadaporn Kanawong and the second author was post-doctoral
researcher Tayo Obafemi-Ajayi.
Provided
by University
of Missouri-Columbia
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