Objective: This study was designed to investigate the possibility of quantification of diagnosis about Abdominal Coldness (腹冷) in functional dyspepsia patients.
Methods: Forty-four functional dyspepsia (FD) patients were enrolled in this study. Th...
Objective: This study was designed to investigate the possibility of quantification of diagnosis about Abdominal Coldness (腹冷) in functional dyspepsia patients.
Methods: Forty-four functional dyspepsia (FD) patients were enrolled in this study. Three Korean Medicine doctors examined abdomen separately in random order. Diagnosis of abdominal coldness was made by consensus of at least two Korean medicine doctors. Measurement of oral temperature by digital oral thermometer and skin temperature through digital infrared thermal imaging (DITI) was conducted followed by Cold and Heat questionnaire (CHQ) and Instrument of Pattern Identification for Functional Dysepepsia (IPIFD).
Results: Among 44 FD patients, 22 FD patients were assigned to Abdominal Coldness (AC) group and non-Abdominal Coldness (non-AC) group, respectively. Concordance rate of diagnosis among three Korean Medicine doctors was 63.6% (28/44) and κ was 0.504. Comparison of oral and skin temperature between AC and non-AC group showed no statistical significance, whereas some scores of CHQ and IPIFD did.
Conclusions: This is the first study for quantitative measurement of Abdominal Coldness in functional dyspepsia patients. Further studies should be conducted for the purpose of quantifying and standardizing abdominal examination (腹診) in Korean Medicine.