Diagnosis: Mixed review

Order the questions of the diagnostic interrogation.

1. Where it is: interior or exterior↑↓
2. What nature: cold or heat↑↓
3. How strong: deficiency or excess↑↓
4. Which organ↑↓
5. Which substance↑↓

Match each sign with the axis it settles.

Red tongue without coating and a thin, rapid pulse. Which axis is safely closed?

1. Heat, and from deficiency
2. Exterior
3. Internal cold

Sort each finding onto the axis it settles.

• Superficial pulse and a stiff neckWhere it isWhat natureHow strong
• Thirst for very cold waterWhere it isWhat natureHow strong
• Faint voice and effortless sweatingWhere it isWhat natureHow strong
• Months of symptoms in a specific organWhere it isWhat natureHow strong
• Cold limbs and clear urineWhere it isWhat natureHow strong
• Full pulse pushing back at the fingerWhere it isWhat natureHow strong

Pale swollen tongue with a thick white coating, and a slippery pulse. What picture do they describe together?

1. Heat from yin deficiency
2. Damp over a background of yang deficiency
3. Blood stagnation

Afternoon flushes, red peeled tongue and a thin rapid pulse. Build the classification.

Recent fever with aversion to cold, plus years of fatigue and loose stools. How is it classified?

1. Exterior only: the acute layer rules
2. Interior only: the chronic layer rules
3. Exterior over an interior deficient background

Match each method with what it gives better than any other.

They say they feel hot but ask for a blanket and hot drinks. What settles the axis?

1. The preference: they want warmth, so the picture is cold
2. The reported sensation: they say they feel hot
3. Neither, without a thermometer

Sort each cluster of signs into its pattern.

• Weak voice, daytime sweating, tires on exertionQi deficiencyBlood deficiencyYin deficiency
• Dizzy on standing, brittle nails, pale lipsQi deficiencyBlood deficiencyYin deficiency
• Night sweats, peeled tongue, hot palmsQi deficiencyBlood deficiencyYin deficiency
• Prolapse and heaviness by the end of the dayQi deficiencyBlood deficiencyYin deficiency
• Light insomnia with pallor and blurred visionQi deficiencyBlood deficiencyYin deficiency
• Dry mouth before dawn with a thin rapid pulseQi deficiencyBlood deficiencyYin deficiency

A symptom that always worsens at the same hour — which axis does it help close?

1. Deficiency or excess, on its own
2. None directly: it flags the channel or organ, and the axes close with other signs
3. Interior or exterior, always interior

Order a full consultation.

1. Listen to the presenting complaint without interrupting↑↓
2. Ask about preferences, timings and history↑↓
3. Look at the tongue↑↓
4. Take the pulse↑↓
5. Close the axes and write the diagnosis↑↓

You lack data to close the cold-heat axis. What do you do?

1. Pick the more likely option and move on
2. Close the diagnosis without that axis
3. Ask directly about drink preference, wrapping up and urine colour

Match each finding with the pattern it confirms.

38-year-old woman: years of fatigue, bloating after meals, loose stools, pale toothmarked tongue with a thick white coating, weak slippery pulse. Diagnosis?

1. Spleen qi deficiency with accumulated damp
2. Stomach yin deficiency
3. Damp-heat in the intestine