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The process of diagnosing a morbid condition as a disease pattern of the small intestine.

The small intestine stands in exterior-interior relationship with the heart. It has the functions of receiving and holding, transforming matter, and separating the clear and turbid.

Pathomechanical Features

Disease of the small intestine disturbs its functions of receiving and holding, transforming matter, and separating the clear and turbid. The cause of the disturbance can be traced to insufficiency of small intestine qì or to repletion heat.

• Impaired receiving and holding: Abdominal pain, vomiting, or diarrhea after eating.
• Impaired transformation of matter: Abdominal distension after eating and grain failing to transform (which manifests in undigested food in the stool).
• Impaired separation of the clear and turbid: Vomiting and diarrhea; abdominal pain; and rumbling intestines; urinary disturbances (frequent urination; rough painful voidings; murky urine).

Chinese medicine considers small intestine functions to belong to the upbearing of the spleen and downbearing of the stomach and usually treats them as such. The only pattern attributed to the small intestine in modern textbooks is repletion heat, which manifests in urinary signs attributable to disturbance of the function of separating the clear and turbid. See spleen.

Small Intestine Patterns

Most modern textbooks only give one disease pattern for the small intestine:

Small intestine repletion heat (小肠实热 xiǎo cháng shí rè): A repletion pattern marked by heart vexation; heart palpitation; mouth and tongue sores; rough voidings of reddish urine with scorching pain on urination; and in some cases bloody urine. It usually arises when heart fire spreads heat to the small intestine. Less commonly, repletion heat in the small intestine can ascend to affect the heart.

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