Shrunken tongue

A thin, shrunken tongue indicates insufficiency of yīn liquid or a dual vacuity of yīn and qì. A shrunken tongue resulting from damage to yīn humor by exuberant heat is crimson in color and dry. In dual yīn and qì vacuity, the tongue is pale in color. Modern clinical observation shows that shrinkage generally occurs in the latter stages of external febrile diseases, and in conditions described in Western medicine as pulmonary tuberculosis, and also in advanced-stage carcinoma. It is explained as the atrophy of the lingual muscle and epithelium due to malnutrition.

See tongue examination.