title: Risk factors and clinical features in ischemic stroke patients with different tongue conditions.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the risk factors and clinical features in ischemic stroke patients with different tongue conditions.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 168 successive acute ischemic stroke inpatients (within 7 days of stroke onset) were recruited. Patients were assigned to groups according to tongue color (pink, pale, red, purple), tongue coating (no coating, thin coating, thick coating) and sublingual vessel (normal, abnormal). Risk factors and clinical features including National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), modified Rankin Scale (mRS) and Barthel Index (BI), clinical classification, laboratory data and pulmonary infection complications were compared.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were no significant differences in risk factors and clinical features among groups with different tongue colors. The incidence of smoking (4.5%) was lower in the no coating group compared with the thin (30.0%) and thick (39.3%) coating groups (P<0.017). NIHSS (19.05±10.68) in the no coating group was higher than the thin (6.40±6.18) and thick (7.41±7.05) coating groups (P<0.017), BI (20.91±29.99) was lower than the thin (67.61±28.78) and thick (63.02±33.54) coating groups (P<0.017), and the percentage of mRS >3 (90.9%) was higher than the thin (42.2%) and thick (42.9%) coating groups (P<0.017). The percentage of partial anterior circulation infarction patients in the no coating group was higher than the thin coating group (77.3% vs. 42.2%), and the percentage of lacunar infarction patients was lower than the thin coating group (4.5% vs. 37.8%, P<0.017). NIHSS in the abnormal sublingual vessel group was lower than the normal group (5.28±4.38 vs. 10.57±9.58, P=0.000), and BI was higher than the normal group (67.61±29.29 vs. 54.64±36.23, P=0.015).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Tongue conditions of acute stroke patients were relevant to clinical features.
authors.affiliation: Stroke Unit, Department of Neurology, Yueyang Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, 200437, China.
authors.forename: Meng-Qi
authors.initials: MQ
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Stroke Unit, Department of Neurology, Yueyang Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, 200437, China.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Stroke Unit, Department of Neurology, Yueyang Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, 200437, China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Stroke Unit, Department of Neurology, Yueyang Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, 200437, China.
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Stroke Unit, Department of Neurology, Yueyang Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, 200437, China.
authors.forename: Xiao-Min
authors.initials: XM
authors.lastname: Zhen
authors.affiliation: Stroke Unit, Department of Neurology, Yueyang Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, 200437, China. zhangyyun@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Yun-Yun
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Zhang
keywords: Chinese medicine diagnosis; clinical feature; ischemic stroke; risk factor; tongue condition