Tongue diagnostic systems are fast gaining traction due to an increase in remote health monitoring worldwide, and new research from the University of South Australia and Iraq’s Middle Technical University provides more evidence of the increasing accuracy of this technology to detect disease.
“Thousands of years ago, Chinese medicine pioneered the practice of examining the tongue to detect illness,” said Dr. Ali Al-Naji, a researcher at the University of South Australia and Middle Technical University.
“Conventional medicine has long endorsed this method, demonstrating that the color, shape, and thickness of the tongue can reveal signs of diabetes, liver issues, circulatory and digestive problems, as well as blood and heart diseases.”
“Taking this a step further, new methods for diagnosing disease from the tongue’s appearance are now being done remotely using artificial intelligence and a camera — even a smartphone.”
“Computerised tongue analysis is highly accurate and could help diagnose diseases remotely in a safe, effective, easy, painless, and cost-effective way.”
“This is especially relevant in the wake of a global pandemic like COVID-19, where access to health centres can be compromised.”
Diabetes patients typically have a yellow tongue, cancer patients a purple tongue with a thick greasy coating, and acute stroke patients present with a red tongue that is often crooked.
A 2022 study in Ukraine analyzing tongue images of 135 COVID-19 patients via a smartphone showed that 64% of patients with a mild infection had a pale pink tongue, 62% of patients with a moderate infection had a red tongue, and 99% of patients with a severe COVID-19 infection had a dark red tongue.
Previous studies using tongue diagnostic systems have accurately diagnosed appendicitis, diabetes, and thyroid disease.
In their study, Dr. Al-Naji and colleagues reviewed the worldwide advances in computer-aided disease diagnosis, based on tongue color.
They also…
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