Quantitative analysis on tongue inspection in traditional Chinese medicine using optical coherence tomography

Tongue inspection (TI) is an important and unique diagnostic method in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), because significant connections between various viscerae diseases and abnormalities in the tongue have been verified. In TCM, TI is simple and non invasive, but in clinical applications, TI is subjectively based on the experience and technique of physicians. To avoid this problem, optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging is introduced here for TI. We study OCT imaging in rats in vivo from chronic gastritis group (model) and normal group (control) and quantitatively analyze the relative parameters, such as the thickness and the moisture degree of TI. Our results show that OCT images properly demonstrate the thickness of the tongue coating and the moisture degree of the tongue in both groups, and the thickness is increased in the model group from that in the normal group, while the moisture degree decreases. As a result, OCT technology has the potential to provide physicians with an objective diagnostic standard for visual TI in TCM clinical practice and research.