A study on consistency and accuracy of pulse diagnosis in Eight-Constitution Medicine

The aim of this study is to evaluate appraiser's consistency and accuracy about pulse diagnosis (PD) in discrimination of eight-constitutions using Gage R&R study. Cumulative numbers of PD for discrimination of eight constitutions of three appraisers' experience were 75,000 cases, 50,000 cases, 1,100 cases, respectively. Three Appraisers diagnosed subject's eight-constitutions by PD with blinded method. Gage R&R study was used to verify the results. In the measurements of consistency, appraiser B (agreement = 80%, Value of k = 0.8276) was very good, appraiser A (agreement = 70%, Value of k = 0.7465) was good, and appraiser C (agreement = 50%, Value of k = 0.5365) was moderate. In the measurements of accuracy, appraiser B (agreement = 70%, Value of k = 0.6812) was good, appraiser A (agreement = 60%, Value of k = 0.6414) was good, and appraiser C (agreement = 0%, Value of k = -0.1000) was poor. The results suggest that accuracy of discrimination of constitutions relatively depend on experience and number of cases of PD. Further large controlled study is needed to evaluate the accuracy of PD.