title: Computerized diagnosis from tongue appearance using quantitative feature classification.
abstract: This study investigates relationships between diseases and the appearance of the human tongue in terms of quantitative features. The experimental samples are digital tongue images captured from three groups of candidates: one group in normal health, one suffering with appendicitis, and a third suffering with pancreatitis. For the purposes of diagnostic classification, we first extract chromatic and textural measurements from original tongue images. A feature selection procedure then identifies the measures most relevant to the classifications, based on which of the three tongue image categories are clearly separated. This study validates the use of tongue inspection by means of quantitative feature classification in medical diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Computing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong. csdzhang@comp.polyu.edu.hk
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pang
authors.forename: Naimin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Kuanquan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Hongzhi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D001064:Appendicitis / Q000175:diagnosis*; D001699:Biometry; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted; D006801:Humans; D010195:Pancreatitis / Q000175:diagnosis*; D014060:Tongue Diseases / Q000473:pathology*