Abstract
Acupuncture and herbal treatment are based on diagnosis of cold and heat pattern in Traditional Korean Medicine. This diagnosis is accomplished through pulse, tongue and question examination, which are not objective. Quantification and objectification of this diagnosis process are required for efficacious treatment and traditional medicine development. In this study, we developed the cold-heat pattern questionnaire for this purpose. Seventy nine patients who visited oriental medical hospital were included in this study. The cold-heat pattern questionnaire was composed of many questions about patient's physical condition, which were derived from The Traditional Oriental Medical Literature with Delphi Technique. Patients filled out the cold-heat pattern questionnaire by themselves. Diagnosis of cold and heat pattern are conducted separately by oriental medical doctors with more than 5 years' clinical experience. Various physical condition factors were derived for the cold-heat pattern questionnaire. (Preference temperature, Body temperature, Pain type, Face color, Urine, Stool and secretion features) Each cold and heat symptoms group acquired internal consistency. (Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ : Cold - 0.605, Heat - 0.722) There were significant associations between doctor's diagnosis and cold symptoms in 'Aversion to cold', 'Desire for heat', 'Pale face', 'Loose stools'. (p-value < 0.05) There were significant associations between doctor's diagnosis and heat symptoms in 'Desire for cold', 'Body feverishness', 'Thirst'. (p-value < 0.05) The internal consistency results suggest that the cold-heat pattern questionnaire assured reliability. Besides, these results showed that cold-heat symptoms are apt to appear together with, and this can be indirect evidence that diagnosis of cold-heat pattern is valuable for comprehension about disease pattern. Moreover, respective symptoms of cold-heat pattern showed different significance with doctor's diagnosis. Consequently these significant symptoms can be more considered for comprehension of cold-heat pattern.
