Diagnostics
In TCM, there are five diagnostic methods: inspection, auscultation, olfaction, inquiry, and palpation.
- Inspection focuses on the face and particularly on the tongue, including analysis of the tongue size, shape, tension, color and coating, and the absence or presence of teeth marks around the edge.
- Auscultation refers to listening for particular sounds (such as wheezing).
- Olfaction refers to attending to body odor.
- Inquiry focuses on the "seven inquiries", which involve asking the patient about the regularity, severity, or other characteristics of:
- chills
- fever
- perspiration
- appetite
- thirst
- taste
- defecation
- urination
- pain
- sleep
- menses
- leukorrhea
- Palpation includes feeling the body for tender A-shi points, palpation of the wrist pulses as well as various other pulses, and palpation of the abdomen.
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