咽喉肿痛

Key differentiation: Wind-heat invasion has acute onset with red swollen painful throat and difficulty swallowing, accompanied by fever, aversion to wind, headache, nasal congestion, cough, reddish tongue edges with a thin yellow coating, and a floating rapid pulse. Lung-Stomach heat blazing presents with severely red swollen burning throat, sometimes with pus spots or sloughing, alongside high fever, thirst, constipation, a red tongue with a thick yellow coating, and a surging rapid pulse. Yin vacuity with flaming fire shows a dry, mildly painful, dull-red throat with foreign-body sensation, worse at night and after exertion, together with five-center heat, tidal fever, night sweats, a red tongue with scant coating, and a fine rapid pulse. Repletion patterns are resolved by coursing wind and clearing heat or draining Lung-Stomach heat; vacuity patterns by enriching yin and downbearing fire.