The Concept of Pulse

Abstract

Apart from being a sign in diagnosis, the pulse is a unique conceptual issue in Traditional Persian Medicine (TPM) that deserves to be discussed in detail. A positional and local motion originating from the source of vital spirit, and consisting of two movements and two rests, the pulse increases the vital spirit and produces the psychic spirit. Analyzing the pulse provides a framework to evaluate conditions of the heart and its vital force, conditions of the matter in the vascular wall and both inside and outside the vascular lumen, and the status of tissue demand for ventilation. There are many factors, both physiologic and pathologic that can bring about specific changes in various parameters of the pulse. Therefore, the comprehensive pulse diagnosis of TPM inquires and is founded on assessing ten features of the pulse, namely parameters of pulse expansion dimensions, pulse strength, pulse speed, pulse frequency, vessel fullness, vessel consistency, overlying skin and tissue quality, pulse uniformity, regularity vs. irregularity of pulse diversity, and pulse weight or music. Overall, the pulse is a demonstration of blood perfusion in tissues, which in turn determines the temperament of organs. This concept has led the authors to the “Doctrine of Priority of Blood Production and Distribution over the Formation of Temperaments and Dystemperaments”. Derived and assessed by the study of pulse in TPM, this doctrine may be used to forecast different temperaments and dystemperaments within an individual by evaluation of the blood and its distributional status via the pulse. This doctrine may solve the paradoxical findings of non-homogenous dystemperaments in single individuals, and reduce misdiagnosis and treatment.