TITLE:
Does East Meet West?—The Association between Oriental Tongue Inspection and Western Clinical Assays of White Blood Cell Subsets
AUTHORS:
Mayumi Watanabe, Eisuke Kainuma, Chikako Tomiyama, Zaigen Oh, Joe Koshizawa, Gouzou Nagano
KEYWORDS:
Alopecia Areata Totalis, Alopecia Areata Multiplex, Tongue Inspection; White Blood Cell Subset, Autonomic Nervous System, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)
JOURNAL NAME:
Health,
Vol.7 No.7,
July
3,
2015
ABSTRACT: The autonomic nervous system (ANS) controls white blood cell (WBC) subsets; therefore, the status of ANS can be assessed by assaying WBCs. However, this requires invasive blood sampling, time, cost, and training. Therefore, this study focused on a traditional technique, tongue inspection, which is a simpler method. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there is an association between the traditional method of tongue inspection and clinical assay of WBC subsets. Twenty-one female alopecia areata patients were divided into two age-matched groups: 1) alopecia areata totalis (AT); and 2) alopecia areata multiplex (AM). Images of patient tongues were captured by a digital camera and categorized before blood sampling. Finally, patients were divided into five groups (normal, Yin+, Yang–, Yin– and Yang+) based on the Eight Principles of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Concurrently, venous blood was obtained for WBC subsets. The absolute numbers of WBCs and granulocytes of the AT group were higher than those of the AM group. The AT group was Yin+ but not Yang+, whereas the AM group was Yang+ but not Yin+. Thus, the AT group showed more elements of “cold” (Yin > Yang) compared with the AM group with elements of “hot” (Yin