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Pulse Quality Chart

Pulse Description Meaning
Choppy Pulse is uneven and rough. Classically defined as a knife scraping bamboo. Blood deficiency or blood stagnation
Deep Pulse has most strength at lowest level and requires deep pressure to feel well. Internal organ deficiency
Fast Pulse is greater than 80 beats per mintue. Heat, either excess or deficient
Full Pulse can be felt strongly on all three levels (superficial, middle and deep). Heat, excess or both.
Hurried Irregularly irregular and fast. Pulse seems to miss a beat with no apparent pattern. Internal heat causing recklessness of blood, condition is deep and serious.
Intermittent Regularly irregular. Pulse seems to miss a beat with a definite pattern. Heart organ disharmony or exhaustion of the organs
Knotted Irregularly irregular and slow. Pulse seems to miss a beat with no apparent pattern. Cold obstructing the flow of qi and blood.
Short Pulse doesn't seem to fill all three positions (front, middle, rear). Qi deficiency or congenital problem.
Slippery Pulse feels like pearls coursing through the pulse, with a definitive rolling quality. The pulse quickly hits each individual finger and just as quickly rolls away. Dampness of any variety, phlegm, pregnancy.
Slow Pulse is less than 60 beats per minute. Cold in the interior, or severe qi deficiency
Superficial Pulse has most strength at upper-most level, and can be felt with only a slight touch. External pathogen (OPI) or Yin deficiency
Thin Exactly what it says. Pulse simply feels thinner than it should. Blood or qi deficiency.
Tight Pulse feels taught like a rope, thicker than wiry, feels as if the pulse evenly hits the fingers in different places with every beat. Cold, usually causing stagnation.
Weak Strength of the pulse is minimal, and with more pressure cannot be felt at all. Qi deficiency
Wiry Pulse feels like a thin rope that bounds up against the fingers evenly but with force. Qi stagnation, especially in Liver, can also be phlegm

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