Tongue diagnosis is an essential process to noninvasively assess the condition of a patient's internal organs in traditional medicine. To obtain quantitative and objective diagnostic results, image acquisition and analysis devices called tongue diagnosis systems (TDSs) are required. These systems consist of hardware including cameras, light sources, and a ColorChecker, and software for color correction, segmentation of tongue region, and tongue classification. To improve the performance of TDSs, various types TDSs have been developed. Hyperspectral imaging TDSs have been suggested to acquire more information than a two-dimensional (2D) image with visible light waves, as it allows collection of data from multiple bands. Three-dimensional (3D) imaging TDSs have been suggested to provide 3D geometry. In the near future, mobile devices like the smart phone will offer applications for assessment of health condition using tongue images. Various technologies for the TDS have respective unique advantages and specificities according to the application and diagnostic environment, but this variation may cause inconsistent diagnoses in practical clinical applications. In this manuscript, we reviewed the current trends in TDSs for the standardization of systems. In conclusion, the standardization of TDSs can supply the general public and oriental medical doctors with convenient, prompt, and accurate information with diagnostic results for assessing the health condition.

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Recently, oriental medicine has received attention for providing personalized medicine through consideration of the unique nature and constitution of individual patients. With the eventual goal of globalization, the current trend in oriental medicine research is the standardization by adopting western scientific methods, which could represent a scientific revolution. The purpose of this study is to establish methods for finding statistically significant features in a facial image with respect to distinguishing constitution and to show the meaning of those features. From facial photo images, facial elements are analyzed in terms of the distance, angle and the distance ratios, for which there are 1225, 61 250 and 749 700 features, respectively. Due to the very large number of facial features, it is quite difficult to determine truly meaningful features. We suggest a process for the efficient analysis of facial features including the removal of outliers, control for missing data to guarantee data confidence and calculation of statistical significance by applying ANOVA. We show the statistical properties of selected features according to different constitutions using the nine distances, 10 angles and 10 rates of distance features that are finally established. Additionally, the Sasang constitutional meaning of the selected features is shown here.

ObjectivesPeptic ulcer disease (PUD) is a common disorder, but whether an association exists between PUD and anthropometric indicators remains controversial. Furthermore, no studies on the association of PUD with anthropometric indices, blood parameters, and nutritional components have been reported. The aim of this study was to assess associations of anthropometrics, blood parameters, nutritional components, and lifestyle factors with PUD in the Korean population.MethodsData were collected from a nationally representative sample of the South Korean population using the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Logistic regression was used to examine associations of anthropometrics, blood parameters and nutritional components among patients with PUD.ResultsAge was the factor most strongly associated with PUD in women (p = <0.0001, odds ratio (OR) = 0.770 [0.683–0.869]) and men (p = <0.0001, OR = 0.715 [0.616–0.831]). In both crude and adjusted analyses, PUD was highly associated with weight (adjusted p = 0.0008, adjusted OR = 1.251 [95%CI: 1.098–1.426]), hip circumference (adjusted p = 0.005, adjusted OR = 1.198 [1.056–1.360]), and body mass index (adjusted p = 0.0001, adjusted OR = 1.303 [1.139–1.490]) in women and hip circumference (adjusted p = 0.0199, adjusted OR = 1.217 [1.031–1.435]) in men. PUD was significantly associated with intake of fiber (adjusted p = 0.0386, adjusted OR = 1.157 [1.008–1.328], vitamin B2 (adjusted p = 0.0477, adjusted OR = 1.155 [1.001–1.333]), sodium (adjusted p = 0.0154, adjusted OR = 1.191 [1.034–1.372]), calcium (adjusted p = 0.0079, adjusted OR = 1.243 [1.059–1.459]), and ash (adjusted p = 0.0468, adjusted OR = 1.152 [1.002–1.325] in women but not in men. None of the assessed blood parameters were associated with PUD in women, and only triglyceride level was associated with PUD in men (adjusted p = 0.0169, adjusted OR = 1.227 [1.037–1.451]).DiscussionWe found that obesity was associated with PUD in the Korean population; additionally, the association between nutritional components and PUD was greater in women than in men.

We propose a novel classification algorithm for the floating pulse and the sunken pulse using a newly defined coefficient (C fs). To examine the validity of the proposed algorithm, we carried out a clinical test in which 12 oriental medical doctors made pairwise diagnoses on the pulses of volunteering subjects. 169 subjects were simultaneously diagnosed by paired doctors, and the diagnoses in 121 subjects were concordant, yielding an accuracy of 72% and a Matthews correlation coefficient of 0.42, which indicates reasonable agreement between doctors. Two sample T-tests showed that subjects in the sunken pulse group had significantly higher BMI and C fs (P < .05) than those in the floating pulse group. The pulse classification by the algorithm converged with the diagnoses of paired doctors with an accuracy up to 69%. With these results, we confirm the validity of the novel classification algorithm for the floating and sunken pulses.