Preliminary Study on the Doppler Blood Flow Analysis of Blood-stasis Tongue

Objective To study the relation between tongue blood flow and tongue of phlegm retention with blood stasis and tongue of qi deficiency with blood stasis. Methods The colored Doppler flow imaging (CDFI) was applied to test the blood flow of deep artery and vein of tongues of 41 phlegm retention with blood stasis patients, 40 qi deficiency with blood stasis patients, and 43 normal people for the comparison analysis. Results There was a significant difference in the maximum flow speed, minimum flow speed, average flow speed, resistance index, and throbbing index of deep artery of tongue (P0.05, P0.01). The group of blood stasis tongue was manifested as decreased blood flow speed, increased resistance index and throbbing index, thus there was a high resistance and low speed of blood flow. Conclusion The throbbing index of deep artery of tongue of Qi deficiency with blood stasis group was lower than that of tongue of phlegm retention with blood stasis group, and the blood flow speed of these two groups was lower than that of normal tongue group. The microcirculation disturbance of tongue may be one of the important factors in forming the blood stasis tongue.