Establishment of criteria for heart disease with survey study in Oriental Medicine

This study was to determine the standard of criteria for differential diagnosis of signs and symptoms. It was selected signs and symptoms related to heart which stands for Fire as a kind of five phase. Eleven experts were asked to evaluate the adequateness of criteria that was developed by Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine (KIOM) and to suggest the amendment of them. To implement the study, we used the questionnaire which asks about the diagnosis criteria for an insufficiency of the heart-qi, deficiency of the heart blood, deficiency of the heart-yin, insufficiency of the heart-yang, exuberant fire due to hyperactivity of the heart, stagnation of the heart blood, heart disturbed by phlegm-fire, attack of the heart by retained fluid. Every criterion consists of primary symptoms, secondary symptoms, tongue findings, and pulse findings. In perspectives of the classification of patterns for signs and symptoms and criteria for diagnosis, the result shows that the previous standard doesn't have so many problems. So many of experts were agree with the criteria that were suggested but the trend is that they use, in their actual practice, less than the criteria. Additionally, they pointed that every element in a criterion should have the different weight value, criteria for the overlapped pattern should be added, and, in future, criteria that are based on clinical investigation should be established