RESUMEN
Tongue diagnosis is an indispensable objective basis for TCM diagnosis and treatment of epidemic diseases.To understand its application in an epidemic situation and to support in the diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases using traditional Chinese medicine,the tongue image APP was implemented in this study to monitor the tongue image features of patients with new coronavirus pneumonia.It has been discovered through practice that the tongue image APP enables medical professionals to objectively,conveniently,quickly,and flexibly collect the patient's tongue image.It has also been discovered through the analysis of the tongue image characteristic data that the tongue image APP can,to a certain extent,objectively reflect the general law of the tongue image characteristics of the new crown pneumonia.According to the tongue image data gathered by the Tongue Image APP,Xinguan pneumonia patients'tongues were typically red,their fur was typically white,yellow,or both white and yellow,and they had a greater amount of thick and greasy fur.Nevertheless,there are still several issues with the Tongue APP application that have been noted:①The consistency of tongue shape and coating was poor;for instance,the inconsistency rate between a thin and fat tongue was as high as 62.96%;②The tongue image analysis index in the APP is still mostly a qualitative index,and the degree of discriminating is insufficient.The results of this study demonstrate that the tongue image information of different ages,sexes,disease classifications,and onset times does not reflect obvious differences and certain rules.③The tongue image characteristic indexes gathered by the tongue image APP are insufficient and do not include information on glossiness of tongue image(such as dark tongue)and tongue state.To promote the adoption of the tongue image APP and better support the prevention and treatment of epidemic diseases by traditional Chinese medicine,we should fully integrate modern advanced science and technology,improve the short videos of tongue coating,quantification of qualitative indicators,comprehensive collection of tongue image characteristic indicators,etc.