不同肺功能狀態之舌診研究

　　　　　本研究在探討肺功能與舌診間的關係，並建立中醫診斷學中舌診的客觀指標。共蒐集51名肺部疾病患者，在控制的環境下擷取舌診影像，除了人為的觀察記錄外，並利用電腦以RBG和HSL模式分析舌診影像。研究結果發現：淡白舌、淡紅舌、紅舌、紫紅舌、淡紫舌、青紫舌等不同舌色，可反映出肺功能的不同嚴重程度。若以紅舌系列與紫舌系列比較，則顯現出紅舌系列病況較輕，紫舌病況較重。舌苔方面，若以苔色與肺功能作比較，白舌肺功能嚴重程度較輕，黃苔肺功能嚴重程度較重。此外，白苔、黃苔的自動判讀，可用彩度、亮度和紅色、藍色、綠色等五個變數，或用藍色、綠色二個變數，經方程式計算後之數值作診斷依據。可見舌頭上的表現與肺功能狀態的好壞有關，而舌診自動判讀的目標可藉由電腦的運用來達成。
　　　　　The purpose of this study was to understand the relationship between pulmonary function and changes in the appearance of the tongue and it coating in order to create an objective index for Chinese medical tongue diagnosis. We photographed the tongues of fifty-one patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in a well-controlled environment. A computerized analysis of tongue images was performed using RGB and HLS models. The results revealed that tongue colors (pale; light red; red; purple-red; light purple; dark purple) were found to vary with with the severity of impairment of lung function. Purple tongues indicated greater severity of impairment that red tongue; yellow tongue coating indicated more severe impairment than white coatings.