Essentials for diagnosis    
(1) At the early stage of the onset, the patient may have fever. Afterwards, swelling will centre upon auricular lobes, spreading without definite borders; the local skin is not red and has tenderness and elasticity. In general, swelling and distension of one side precede another.

(2) The mouth of parotic duct is red and swollen. When the parotic region is pressed, no purulent secretion will appear from the mouth of parotic duct. The parotic swelling and distension last for about 4 to 5 days and begin to abate. The whole course of disease goes on for about 1 to 2 weeks.

(3) The patient has the history of contact with the mumps patients in most cases before the onset.

(4) Hemogram examination shows normal white blood cell count in most patients. Elevated or reduced white blood cell count may exist in partial patients, while lymphocyte count elevates relatively. For the patients with complicated encephalitis or meningitis, cerebrospinal fluid examination indicates cerebrospinal pressure elevates, cell count increases, mainly in lymphocyte, while chloride and sugar are normal, protein elevates slightly.

In TCM, a disease or a symptom might be caused by one pathogenic factor, even two or three pathogenic factors. When diagnosing a disease or a symptom, TCM doctors must follow the principle of "Syndrome Dfferentiation", and then "Suit the Remedy to the Case". In order to gain a more definite and valuable diagnosis, it's important and necessary for the doctor to learn the detailed health information of the patient, including his/her disease duration, age, sex, height, weight, family history, urine, stool, diet, sleep, sweat, energy, mood (emotion), as well as the tongue conditions and the palm conditions, etc. If you would want our expert to create a TCM diagnosis, you're welcome to contact us.