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Building a bridge between traditional Chinese medicine and modern Western
diagnostics is the aim of Eastwest Pharmaceuticals of Massachusetts (WO
01/79839). According to Chinese medicine, allergic asthma causes “heat zheng”,
which is said to be caused by “too much yang and not enough yin”—leading
to excessive thirst, a red tongue and dark urine. The patent cites a study in
which patients with heat zheng always have higher blood serum levels of
eosinophil cationic protein. So measuring the level of ECP with Eastwest’s new
fluorescent test kit will give doctors trained in the West a diagnosis of
traditional Chinese heat zheng.