Table 4 .

Criteria for HF syndrome differentiation in proposed model

Syndrome		Signs or Symptoms	Diagnosis	Tongue manifestation
Primary syndrome	Qi Deficiency	Palpitations, shortness of breath, gasping for breath, tiredness	At least two signs or symptoms	Normal tongue size, thin-white fur, and/or associated with tender-soft tongue texture
	Yang-Qi Deficiency	Qi Deficiency Syndrome + Yang Deficiency symptoms: fear cold, coldness feeling in upper or lower libs, somnolence	At least two signs or symptoms of yang-deficiency	Enlarged tongue or with teeth-mark, or associated with watery tongue fur
	Qi-Yin Deficiency	Qi Deficiency Syndrome + Yin Deficiency Syndrome: easy/spontaneous sweating during the daytime, night sweating, feeling heat at palm or mid-foot	At least two signs or symptoms of yin deficiency	Red/deep red tongue, thin tongue, diminished or no tongue fur, peeled tongue fur, or fissure tongue
	Yin-Yang Dual Deficiency	Co-existence of the signs and symptoms of Yin Deficiency and Yang Deficiency	At least two signs or symptoms of both Yin and Yang deficiency	Co-existence of the tongue manifestation of Yang-Qi Deficiency or Qi-Yin Deficiency. Example: can be with an enlarged tongue root with thick slimy tongue fur and a relatively thin tongue tip with reduced or no tongue fur
Associated Syndrome	Phlegm Retention	Coughing, Coughing with phlegm	With at least one sign or symptoms+ Tongue manifestation	Watery tongue fur or thin/thick slimy/greasy tongue fur (often thicker in the middle and at the root of the tongue), and may also associate with an enlarged tongue or teeth-marked tongue
	Blood Stasis	Cyanosis of face and lips, dim or purple lip		Dim/purple/bluish purple tongue, or with bruises or bleeding spot