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Palpation
Palpation, or
touching, is a form of diagnosis made by feeling and tapping local
areas of the body to ascertain:
- Painful areas
- Temperature
of the skin (heat, cold)
- Swelling
- Perspiration
- Color
Pulse Diagnosis:
Pulse diagnosis,
as it applies to Traditional Chinese Medicine, is the most important
form of palpation, and is very different from that of Western physicians.
In performing
pulse palpation, the practitioner places the index, middle, and ring
fingers on the radial artery. Three degrees of pressure, the light
touch, the medium touch, and the heavy touch are applied to the region
and correspond to the upper, middle, and lower areas of the body.
In traditional
terms, there are 28 pulse classifications, which describe the way the
pulse feels to the fingertip. Some examples of these classifications
are:
- Slippery
- feels
like a rolling pearl in a basin, very fluid and full
- Choppy -
has no strength and is irregular
- Full
- large and rounded, can be felt at all levels
- Empty
- hard to detect or felt only slightly at the superficial level when
pressure is applied
- Slow
- slower than the normal rate of four to five beats per breath
- Rapid
- six to seven beats per breath
- Superficial
- easily felt on the skin surface
- Deep
- only felt with a heavy touch
These, along with
20 other descriptions, must be taken into consideration during pulse
diagnosis. This requires a tremendous amount of skill and practice,
and when properly executed is one of the most important and accurate
means of correctly diagnosing a patient. In fact, pulse and tongue
diagnosis are considered to be the "two pillars" of the four
examinations in traditional practice.
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