Heart history taking and physical examination from the perspective of Persian medicine

Background and Purpose:

There is a separate chapter for heart diseases in most basic textbooks of Persian medicine such as the Canon of Avicenna. Although nineteen heart diseases are discussed in the related section, heart problems encompass a wide variety of disorders in Persian medicine. This is because the heart is the center of innate heat (Hararat-e-Gharizi) which influences all body functions. Cardiac drugs in this medical school have antidote and anti-depressive effects. In spite of its importance, the cardiac examination has not been discussed collectively in a systematic approach in Persian medicine. We tried to do that in this article.

Methods and Materials:

This article is a library based study. Persian medicine textbooks and its related articles in current databases were searched for the heart examination. Meanwhile, in current medicine, cardiovascular textbooks, as well as databases, were studied with keywords such as heart examination. Both findings were combined with the article.

The most complete explanation of cardiac evaluation belongs to Avicenna in his third volume of the famous book, the Canon of medicine. He mentions that the heart should be evaluated from eight perspectives.

Heart has a wider sense and larger domain of evaluation in Persian medicine than current medicine. Cardiac evaluation pathway in Persian medicine could be integrated with current medicine and presented as an algorithm for a fast and less mistakable approach to cardiac examination by Persian medicine practitioners.