Pressing epigastrium and abdomen is helpful for detecting the disorders of the stomach, spleen, small intestine, large intestine, bladder and uterus, etc.

Generally speaking, cold sensation of the skin when pressed with preference for warmth is usually of cold syndrome; feverish sensation of the skin when pressed with preference for cold is of heat syndrome; epigastric and abdominal pain with preference for pressure is of asthenia syndrome and epigastric and abdominal pain with aversion to pressure is of sthenia syndrome.
 
Epigastric fullness with soft sensation and no pain when pressed is caused by weakness of the stomach; epigastric fullness with hard and painful sensation when pressed usually results from accumulation of sthenic pathogenic factors in the epigastrium. Distending epigastric pain with hard sensation and gurgling noise when pressed is due to retention of fluid in the stomach resulting from asthenia of the middle energizer qi and stagnation of qi.
 
Full sensation of the abdomen under pressure with tenderness is known as sthenic fullness due to qi stagnation, blood stasis or retention of fluid: soft sensation of the abdomen under pressure and without tenderness is known as asthenic fullness due to asthenia of yangqi or failure of transportation caused by qi asthenia.
 
Drum-like swelling of the abdomen with dull yellowish skin, visible veins over the abdominal wall and emaciation of the four limbs is called tympanites. Tympanites with fluid sensation when pressed and dull sound when tapped which is called hydraulic tympanites, while tympanites with empty sensation when tapped is known as pneumotympanites.
 
Immobile abdominal lumps with fixed pain are unmovable mass due to blood stasis; mobile abdominal lumps with migratory pain are known as movable mass due to qi stagnation. Impalpable pain in right lower abdomen, with mass when pressing, is often seen in the intestinal abscess and so on.