How to standardize the pulse-taking method of traditional Chinese medicine pulse diagnosis

The aim of this report is to propose standard pulse taking procedure of Traditional Chinese Medicine Pulse Diagnosis. In order to acquire full information from taking a wrist pulse, this proposal adopts a tactile sensor with 12 sensing points at one sensing position, such as Cun, Guan, or Chi. Simultaneously Palpation (SP) and Pressing with One Finger (PWOF) are adopted to explore their differences of the detected pulse signals. According to vertical dynamic characteristics, the results of a Pearson product moment reveal that the correlation coefficients of PWOF and SP are highly correlated from Fu to Chen. In addition, according to unique characteristics of body state, the results of a paired samples t test reveal that the SP and PWOF are indifferent at a specific pulse taking depth. Hence, if using the pulse-taking instrument with tactile sensors, it is concluded that pulse signals taken by familiar SP and PWOF methods are shown in statistical indifferences among seven parameters (V-ppmean, V-ppmax, HR, LENGTH, WIDTH, AS, and DS). (c) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.