Tongue Diagnosis and Treatment in Traditional Chinese Medicine for Severe COVID-19: a Case Report

As one of the most urgent public health events, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has attracted worldwide attention. This case highlighted the importance of close coordination between Chinese medicine and western medicine in the diagnosis and treatment, as well as the need for rapid dissemination of clinical information related to patient care with this emerging infection. We reported a COVID-19 case confirmed in China and described the identification, diagnosis, clinical course, and management of the case. The patient had initial mild symptoms at presentation; it progressed to severe pneumonia on the 10th day of onset. This cured case supplied a time series analysis of tongue characteristics found in severe COVID-19. Chinese medicine formulae were tweaked by tongue characteristics, which include tongue color, fur thickness, and fur color. Tongue images were obtained every two days, and the changes were firmly related to the progression of COVID-19. These tongue characteristics could be used as effective, non-intrusive indices for the distinct stages of COVID-19 stages. Our study was the first time tongue diagnosis was applied in time series analysis of the progression of COVID-19 disease. We found that tongue color, fur thickness, and fur color were closely related to the progression of COVID-19 by analyzing various tongue images obtained regularly. Based on this success, we will further apply tongue diagnosis to tongue characteristics of COVID-19 patients to help limit the risk of COVID-19.