Diagnostic methods

There are four diagnostic methods in TCM, i.e. observing, auscultation and olfaction, inquiry and pulse feeling and palpation. Yuyuantang focuses on pulse diagnosis and abdominal diagnosis, and adopts an objective test-digital meridian test system to make diagnosis more direct and accurate.

  • Observing:

    Observing the body in whole or in part. Observing the body in whole includes observing expression (i.e. psychosis), observing complexion (i.e. observing the luster of skin), observing physique (i.e. observing the physique and facial features, etc.), and observing posture (i.e. observing body postures and movements). Observing the body in part mainly refers to observing tongue, and observing tongue includes observing the tongue color, substance, and coating.

  • Auscultation and olfaction:

    Listening means the understanding of the disease situations by listening and smelling, involving sound, language, breath, and intestines sound etc. smelling diseases factors including odor of mouth, sweat, egesta, and vomits, etc.

  • Inquiry:

    Inquiring is a method for a doctor to ask about the disease situations of a patient, for example, the patient’s self-consciousness symptoms, course of disease occurrence, process of treatment, living conditions, physical conditions, previous diseases and family diseases. Inquiring is also one of the important TCM diagnostic methods, and it provides an important basis for identifying diseases.

  • Pulse feeling and palpation:

    It is a diagnostic method, including pulse-taking, abdominal diagnosis and meridian diagnosis. Pulse-taking is a diagnostic procedure by which the physician may feel the patient's radial arteries with the finger-tips to judge pulse condition. Abdominal diagnosis is a traditional diagnostic method, which refers to touching and pressing the abdominal section to learn the function stage of certain parts of the body. Based on the traditional medicine theory, abdominal diagnosis can be taken as the basis for prescription, drug use and judgment of curative effects. More objective and accurate than pulse taking, it is easily recognizable by patients, so it is widely used by the experts of Yuyuantang.

  • Meridian test:

    A digital meridian analysis system is used to convert human energy into numeric information by means of computer system. Generally, specific points of the 12 meridians are selected for test and comparative analysis so as to infer the source of disease and the conditions of internal organs. A meridian test can be used to reflect patient’s physical conditions and current situations visually, and provide objective basis for disease diagnosis, curative effect assessment and disease prevention.