Abstract:

This article focuses on the clinical experience of Professor Wang Lining, a renowned traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioner in Guangxi and a national instructor for inheriting the academic expertise of senior TCM doctors. Professor Wang comprehensively applies various diagnostic methods of TCM to the clinical practice, including inspection, listening/smelling, inquiry, and palpation(wang-wen-wen-qie), specifically tailored to the characteristics of pediatrics, which are often referred to as the "silent specialty" due to children's limited ability to express symptoms. Professor Wang emphasizes the integration of TCM theory with modern clinical practice. Based on the clinical features of children, she stresses detailed history taking at the diagnostic level. Through a standardized model of history collection, she dynamically tracks the evolution of the disease to ensure that the information is prompt, objective, and accurate. She places significant importance on inspection, innovatively proposing "infraorbital ecchymosis" (dark circles under the eyes) as a phenotypic marker for atopic constitution. She formulated multi-dimensional mode of inspection by differing the cold from the hot based on the throat color and analyzing the cause of disease according to the changes in tongue, which deeply correlates the signs on body surface with visceral pathology. Considering the limitations of pulse diagnosis in children, she introduces the theory of "xuli＂(the area of the apex beat) from the Huangdi Neijing, integrating the TCM diagnostic approach of＂xuli＂with modern auscultation techniques. and she uses cardiopulmonary auscultation to assess the state of pectoral qi (zongqi) and the trend of disease change. Professor Wang also emphasizes the combination of pulse findings with clinical manifestations (syndrome differentiation), advocating to "discard the pulse and focus on the syndrome"(shemai congzheng)， when the pulse signs are not in accordance with the actual clinical presentation. This diagnostic model, characterized by upholding integrity and pursuing innovation, not only improves the objectivity of the four diagnostic methods in pediatrics but also promotes the standardization and precision of TCM pediatric diagnostics, holding significant academic value for improving strategies for the prevention and treatment of childhood diseases.

Key words: Pediatric diagnostic methods, Diagnostic experience, Wang Lining