Heart yang deficiency is the pattern name used when the warming and motivating function associated with the heart is described as insufficient. In the classical vocabulary yang is what moves and warms; when it is said to be deficient at the heart, the picture is one of a circulation that is not being driven hard enough and a chest that is not being kept warm.
The features recorded for it are: palpitation, or a sense of the heart beating uncomfortably, sometimes with an undercurrent of fearfulness; a feeling of oppression or emptiness in the chest; shortness of breath on slight effort; cold hands and feet and a general intolerance of cold; spontaneous sweating; a pale or bluish complexion; a pale, swollen tongue; and a pulse described as deep, slow, or intermittently interrupted. It is usually understood as a development out of heart qi deficiency rather than as something arising on its own.
The pattern overlaps with several modern conditions that produce the same cluster of complaints, including heart failure, marked bradycardia and conduction block, hypothyroidism, and anaemia. The overlap is real but it is not identity: a pattern name is not a test and cannot sort those conditions out. Two people can be given the same name for quite different reasons, and one person's name can change while the underlying disease is unchanged.
Two things are not negotiable. Chest pain - especially pain with a pressing quality, or pain spreading to the jaw, back or arm, or accompanied by sweating, nausea or breathlessness - is assessed as an emergency, not interpreted. New breathlessness that wakes a person at night, breathlessness that prevents lying flat, progressive leg swelling, and a faint are reasons to be seen promptly.
Whether the warming methods recorded for this pattern change any long-term outcome has not been established. This entry describes a way of talking about symptoms; it does not diagnose and it does not give a treatment.
心阳虚是古典术语，指的是与心相关的推动与温煦作用被描述为不足。阳在古典语境中是推动与温煦的一面；说心阳不足，描述的便是血行推动无力、胸中不得温养这一组表现。
记载中的表现包括：心悸、怔忡，或心中悸动而兼惊怯之感；胸闷或胸中空虚感；微劳即气短；手足不温、整体畏寒；自汗；面色㿠白或青紫；舌淡胖；脉象被描述为沉、迟，或时有歇止。通常理解为由心气虚进一步发展而来，而非单独发生。
这一证名与若干现代疾病的症状组合重叠：心力衰竭、显著心动过缓与传导阻滞、甲状腺功能减退、贫血等。重叠是真实的，但不等同：证名不是检查，无法区分上述疾病。两个人可能因完全不同的原因得到同一个证名，而同一个人的证名在疾病未变时也可能改变。
有两条不让：胸痛——尤其是压榨样疼痛，或放射至下颌、背部、手臂者，或伴出汗、恶心、呼吸困难者——按急症评估，不作解释。新发的夜间憋醒、不能平卧、进行性下肢水肿、晕厥，都应及时就诊。
针对本证的温阳法是否改变任何长期结局，未被证实。本条描述的是一套说法，不诊断，也不给方案。
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