Diagnosis in Traditional Chinese Medicine (Paperback)

by Ping Chen (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
A complete information-rich book of T.C.M. diagnostic technique and theory with extensive diagnostic detail arranged in tables. An ideal reference and study resource for students and practitioners.

From the Publisher
Diagnosis in Traditional Chinese Medicine is an original text based on Dr. Chen's years of experience as a clinician and as a university professor teaching diagnosis courses in China. Trained in China as an M.D. and as a doctor of Chinese medicine, she taught Chinese-speaking biomedical and traditional physicians as well as English-speaking interns. Upon her arrival in the U.S. to teach students of Chinese medicine, she became concerned for her Western students' particular difficulty in applying pattern identification in practice. She concluded that the probable cause of this difficulty was in part because available English language texts lack the depth of Chinese teaching and in part because lecture-like presentations of diagnostic skills do not make it easy to grasp clear distinctions. In composing this work, Dr. Chen arranges a great deal of information so that the logical relationships become easy to see, easy to read, and easy to understand. She succinctly explains each of the symptoms, signs, techniques and patterns with special emphasis on practical clinical observations, followed by a graphical display of the clinical details for each.

Dr. Chen is not only one of the most experienced teachers and clinicians to write about diagnosis, she is also one of the most practically innovative. By graphically displaying the details and relationships, she saves students hours and hours of effort usually needed to sort these details from lectures and textbooks. In the translational terminology use she has been equally creative. By preserving the basic English terms on which there is a higher degree of consistency and familiarity--excess and deficiency for example--readers feel most comfortable. By insuring that the full detail of the diagnostic skills is included, and that each concept can be reliably linked to Chinese, readers are assured that they can discover anything they might need to know and that they will be able to cross-reference other texts that have preserved a reliable relationships to their Chinese sources.

The text itself is in two parts. The first part begins with a review of the main concepts and principles of diagnosis. Chapter 2, Inspection, describes a whole-person diagnostic routine with emphasis on tongue inspection. It also includes a section on pediatric inspection of the superficial veins of the index finger. Chapter 3 details the traditional approach to listening and smelling. Chapter 4 describes a full course of questioning including areas of investigation particular to pregnancy, post-partum issues, and pediatric disorders. Chapter 5 is devoted to palpation, with an emphasis on pulse palpation.

The second part of the book is devoted to Pattern Identification. In Chapter 5, Eight Principle Pattern Identification is detailed. Here, the graphical approach really excels because it is easy to see how one pathomechanism (e.g. an insufficiency of yang qi) can be related to many manifestations observed by the patient and practitioner, as well as many systemic pathologies. There is also an analysis of transmission between one eight-principle pattern and another. Chapter 7 describes pathogenic patterns and Chapter 8 describes patterns of Qi and Blood. Chapter 9 describes the identification of patterns for each of the internal organs. Here, too, the liberal use of tables makes the multiplicity of relationships easier to see. In chapters 10-12, Dr. Chen describes three specialized diagnostical approaches: Six Channels; Wei, Qi, Ying and Blood; and the Three Burners. Chapter 13 presents 14 case histories to be used as review of pattern diagnosis.

Diagnosis in Traditional Chinese Medicine concludes with a glossary that links any term that cannot be looked up in English in the Practical Dictionary of Chinese Medicine to a term that can be so referenced. Thus the Chinese, Pinyin, and description of every concept used in the text can be conveniently accessed by those who need to do so. There is also an extensive index.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 284 pages
• Publisher: Complementary Medicine Press (February 28, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0967303451
• ISBN-13: 978-0967303451
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,319,143 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars textbook review, August 25, 2006

By	J. Kontos (Mesa, AZ,USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Navigating the Channels of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Paperback)

Easy to read, no hard to understand terminology. Exactly what the instructor/school requires.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ultimate Set of Class Notes, January 29, 2007

By	Jim Curry (MT) - See all my reviews

I am an avid amateur student of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Because I do only independent study, I find this book a little bit terse for my needs. The material of this book is very complete, and it is presented in the most useful possible form for reference and review. Almost all the information is put into self-explanatory tables that essentially anyone could follow. The organization is so perfect that nothing could possibly be any better. It is like the ultimate set of class notes from a very good course on diagnosis. However, if you don't HAVE a course to go to and if you don't HAVE a teacher to enlarge a little bit on the content, you will probably need a bigger, wordier text (like Tie-Tao Deng's text) to go with this one. Still, the organization is so exceptional that this book has to be of considerable value to any student of TCM. (If you are already a master, you don't need any book, do you?)

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must need reference book, January 3, 2007

By	M. E. Hall "me hall" (Dana Point, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Navigating the Channels of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Paperback)

This simplifies the understanding of the meridian channels like no other book has. Used it daily with my studies.