OBJECTIVETo study the differences in a special region (SR) corresponding to five internal organs between the young and the elderly and to verify the effectiveness of a developed system for objectifying research in colour inspections of Chinese medicine (CICM).

METHODSAn image acquisition device imitating daylight to meet the requirement of CICM was designed. Image processing software based on CICM theory was developed. A total of 83 normal people were sampled and assigned to two groups. The first group (Group I) included 30 people with an average age of 24±2, and the second group (Group II) included 53 people with an average age of 74±4. After image processing, the chromaticity of 10 SRs corresponding to five internal organs was calculated. R, G, and B represent the chromaticity of color red, green, and blue, L indicates color brightness, whereas a and b denote red and yellow respectively. The difference between the young and the elderly was analyzed.

RESULTS(1) The chromaticity of each SR corresponding to five organs was obtained. The average R, G, B, L, a, and b of the sample were 194.4, 147.6, 119.3, 65.2, 15.5, and 22.3, respectively. (2) The R, G, B, and L of the young were greater than those of the elderly, but the a and b of the young were less than those of the elderly. (3) A statistically significant difference in each SR was found between the young and the elderly (P <0.05). The total differences for the Lung (Fei), Heart (Xin), Liver (Gan), Spleen (Pi), and Kidney (Shen) were 50% (3/6), 66.7% (4/6), 66.7% (4/6), 83.3% (5/6), and 91.7% (33/36), respectively. However, the Kidney SR had the greatest statistical discrepancy.

CONCLUSIONThe old Chinese saying that human Kidney deficiency worsens with age was verified by the results. The objectifying system used to examine CICM was effective. Thus, this system may be used as a basis for further research.