{UAH} new India togue test - From allergies to syphilis
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What does your tongue say about your health? From allergies to syphilis, the signs of illness hidden in your mouth
- Scientists in India have developed a new test to spot 14 conditions
- Aimed at those people in remote areas without regular access to doctors
- Black tongue is a sign of over use of antibiotics and fungal overgrowth in HIV patients, while long furrows in the surface are indicative of syphilis
- Test uses symptoms combined with an image of the patient's tongue
- Can offer a likely diagnosis and indicate if someone should see a doctor
By Lizzie Parry for MailOnline
Published: 13:42 GMT, 8 December 2014 | Updated: 14:51 GMT, 8 December 2014
Indian scientists have developed a new test to detect what your tongue indicates about a person's health. It can spot 14 different conditions
For those feeling under the weather, the old adage of 'stick your tongue out', may betray the signs of the illness by which they are afflicted.
The tongue can signal signs of a cough, fever, jaundice, headache or bowel habits, and helps doctors make their diagnosis.
A healthy tongue should be pink, clean and covered in papillae, which contain taste buds.
But inflamed, red, black or white tongues could be a sign of other conditions such as thrush, while a swollen tongue can be a sign of an allergic reaction.
Meanwhile a black, discoloured tongue is indicative of extended antibiotic use, or a fungal overgrowth in HIV patients, say Indian scientists.
And long furrows on the surface are a sign of the sexually transmitted infection, syphilis.
Ulcers should ring alarm bells, warning of Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis.
And a 'beefy and smooth' tongue might reveal vitamin B12, iron or folate deficiency, and anemia.
Moving on to more serious conditions, sores or lumps on the tongue - or unexplained bleeding - can be a sign of mouth cancer, warns Cancer Research UK.
But for those living in remote parts of the world, where access to a doctor can be difficult, the simple act of checking a patient's tongue can prove hard.
To combat the problem, scientists in India have now developed a new test.
The new diagnostic system, reported in the International Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, works to combine symptoms with a digital analysis of an image of the patient's tongue.
Karthik Ramamurthy, from Rajalakshmi Engineering College in Chennai, and Siddharth Kulkarni and Rahul Deshpande of School of Electronics Engineering at VIT University, have developed the new software.
The neural network can take 'soft inputs' - standard questions about symptoms - and a digital image of a patient's tongue to help offer a likely diagnosis.
It aims to help decide if a professional healthcare worker should be sought out for further advice.
The digital images of the patient's tongue reveal discolouration, engorgement, texture, and other factors linked to various illnesses.
The team's automated diagnosis, however, ultilises the condition of the tongue in combination with other symptoms, to identify whether a patient has a common cold, flu, bronchitis, stretptococcal throat infection, sinusitis, allergies, asthma, pulmonary edema, and food poisoning.
In its current form the system allows diagnosis of 14 distinct conditions.
But the team hope they can soon add images of patient's eyes to use as additional information, thus extending the system's repertoire significantly.
IS YOUR PARTNER'S SNORING DRIVING YOU MAD? THEIR EXTRA-LARGE TONGUE MIGHT BE TO BLAME, SCIENTISTS SAY
A recent study has discovered that the tongues of some people who snore are extra large.
It's already well-known that being overweight or obese increases the risk of obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA), which leads to snoring because the airway becomes blocked.
Until now, it was thought that a large neck was to blame.
Now, however scientists say piling on the pounds can also cause a fat tongue - which may well be the culprit.
U.S. researchers found that obese people with OSA had a higher percentage of tongue fat - especially at the base of their tongues - which made their tongues larger overall.
A recent study, published in the journal Sleep, found the tongues of people who snore are extra large
This was compared with obese people who didn't suffer from the sleep condition.
Increased tongue fat might prevent the tongue's muscles from positioning the tongue away from the airway, causing snoring because the airway becomes blocked, researchers said.
They added the study might provide an explanation for the link between obesity and sleep apnoea - and said screening to identify fat tongues may could help diagnose the condition.
It's known that obesity is a major cause of obstructive sleep apnoea, a condition where the throat closes repeatedly during the night.
Snoring occurs because the airways become narrowed, or even completely blocked, preventing the body from getting enough oxygen.
In severe cases, the brain jolts the body awake, causing the airway to reopen.
The person may wake up repeatedly without knowing it, increasing their heart rate and blood pressure and preventing deep sleep.
Dr. Richard J. Schwab, of the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center in the U.S. said: 'This is the first study to show that fat deposits are increased in the tongue of obese patients with obstructive sleep apnea.'
Dr Timothy Morgenthaler, president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine said doctors should look at tongue size when screening for OSA.
He said: 'Tongue size is one of the physical features that should be evaluated by a physician when screening obese patients to determine their risk for obstructive sleep apnoea.
'Effective identification and treatment of sleep apnoea is essential to optimally manage other conditions associated with this chronic disease, including high blood pressure, heart disease, tType 2 diabetes, stroke and depression.'
The study was published in the journal Sleep.
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