Influence of traditional Chinese medicine constitution type on the susceptibility of hypertensive cases to intracerebral haemorrhage

Current Status of Objectification of Four Diagnostic Methods on Constitution Recognition of Chinese Medicine

Chinese medicine (CM) has thousands of years of experience in prevention of diseases. As for CM, people's constitution is closely related to their health status, thus recognition of CM constitution is the fundamental and core content of research on constitution types. With development of technologies such as sensors, artificial intelligence and big data, objectification of the four diagnostic methods of CM has gradually matured, bringing changes in the mindset and innovations in technical means for recognition of CM constitution. This paper presents a systematic review of the latest research trends in constitution recognition based on objectification of diagnostic methods in CM.

Traditional Chinese Medicine Constitution Is Associated with the Frailty Status of Older Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study in the Community

Objective

This study explored the relationship between traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) constitution and frailty status in older adults.

Methods

A total of 3,586 participants, 65 years of age and older, with complete data were evaluated. All received a complete frailty assessment and completed a TCM geriatric constitution questionnaire. Baseline characteristics and demographic information were collected. The relationship between the TCM constitution and frailty was evaluated by binary regression analysis. The consistency of the result was tested by multivariate linear regression.

Results

The average prevalence of frailty among older adult participants was 12.5%. The three most prevalent biased constitutions in the frail older adult participants were phlegm dampness 140 (31.3%), Yin deficiency 77 (17.2%), and Yang deficiency 47 (10.5%). Univariate analysis showed that TCM constitution significantly correlated with frailty. After adjusting for potential confounders, binary logistic regression found a significant correlation between biased constitutions and frailty, including Qi stagnation (odds ratio (OR) = 3.51, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.94–6.36)), Qi deficiency ((OR = 3.23, (95% CI: 1.76–5.94)), Yang deficiency ((OR = 2.37, (95% CI: 1.50–3.74)), phlegm dampness ((OR = 1.75, (95% CI: 1.24–2.48)), and Yin deficiency ((OR = 1.70, (95% CI: 1.15–2.50)). Results of multiple linear regression were consistent.

Conclusions

TCM constitution was significantly associated with frailty status in older adults, and the distribution was different. Compared with a neutral constitution, older adults with Qi stagnation, Qi deficiency, Yang deficiency, phlegm dampness, and Yin deficiency were more likely to experience frailty.

Grouping attributes zero-shot learning for tongue constitution recognition

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) considers that the personal constitution determines the occurrence trend and therapeutic effects of certain diseases, which can be recognized by machine learning through tongue images. However, current machine learning methods are confronted with two challenges. First, there are not some larger tongue image databases available. Second, they do not use the domain knowledge of TCM, so that the imbalance of constitution categories cannot be solved. Therefore, this paper proposes a new constitution recognition method based on the zero-shot learning with the knowledge of TCM. To further improve the performance, a new zero-shot learning method is proposed by grouping attributes and learning discriminant latent features, which can better solve the imbalance problem of constitution categories. Experimental results on our constructed databases validate the proposed methods.

Association study of diabetes mellitus and body constitution of traditional Chinese medicine

Objective: We report on the association between traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) constitution and diabetes mellitus (DM) and provide epidemiological evidence for the theory of correlation between constitution and disease.

Methods: A total of 3748 participants were used for data analysis, and all study subjects underwent a complete clinical baseline characteristics evaluation to collect related information. DM was determined by an oral glucose tolerance test. Multiple logistic regression (MLR) models were employed to detect the associations.

Results: In total, 16.84% of the participants had DM in the total sample. Significant differences were found in age, height, weight, and heart rate, between the DM and non-DM groups. Univariate linear regression analyses indicated that the variables Qi_Deficient and Yang_Deficient were significantly associated with the outcome, and a negative correlation between TCM constitution and DM was found. After adjustment for relevant potential confounding factors, the MLR detected significant associations between both the Qi_Deficient and Yang_Deficient variables and DM ([Formula: see text]-value [Formula: see text] 0.015 for Qi_Deficient and [Formula: see text]-value [Formula: see text] for Yang_Deficient). In Qi_Deficient and Yin_Deficient participants, the odds ratios (ORs) for DM were 0.778 and 0.646, respectively.

Conclusion: Qi_Deficient and Yang_Deficient were significantly associated with DM. These findings may provide insights for clinical practice for the prevention and diagnosis of DM.

A Real-World Evidence Study for Distribution of Traditional Chinese Medicine Syndrome and Its Elements on Respiratory Disease

Background

This study aimed to investigate the distribution and characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndrome and its elements on respiratory diseases (RDs) based on real-world data (RWD).

Methods

A real-world study was performed to explore the relationships among TCM syndrome and RDs based on electronic medical information. A total of 26,074 medical records with complete data were available for data analysis. Factor analyses were used to reduce dimensions of TCM syndrome elements and detect common factors. Additionally, cluster analyses were employed to assess combinations of TCM syndrome elements. Finally, association rule analyses were performed to investigate the structures of TCM syndrome elements to estimate the patterns of TCM syndrome.

Results

A total of 27 TCM syndromes were extracted from RWD in this work. There were four TCM syndromes with >5.0% frequency based on the distribution frequency. The top five pathogenesis TCM syndrome elements were Tan, Huo, Feng, Qi_Xu, and Han. Factor analysis, cluster analysis, and association rule analysis demonstrated that Tan, Huo, Feng, Qi_Xu, Shen, and Fei were the core TCM syndrome elements.

Conclusion

Four common Shi TCM syndromes on RDs were identified: Tan_Re_Yong_Fei, Tan_Zhuo_Zu_Fei, Feng_Re_Fan_Fei, and Feng_Han_Xi_Fei; two core common Xu TCM syndromes (Fei_Shen_Qi_Xu and Fei_Yin_Xu) and two core common Mix TCM syndromes (Fei_Pi_Qi_Xu-Tan_Shi_Yun_Fei and Fei_Shen_Qi_Xu-Tan_Yu_Zu_Fei) were also determined. The core TCM syndrome elements of Tan, Huo, Feng, Qi_Xu, Shen, and Fei were identified in this work.

Individualized prevention against hypertension based on Traditional Chinese Medicine Constitution Theory: A large community-based retrospective, STROBE-compliant study among Chinese population

Traditional Chinese Medicine Constitution (TCMC) theory states that individuals with a biased TCMC are more likely to suffer from specific diseases. However, little is known regarding the influence of TCMC on susceptibility to hypertension. The aim of this study is to examine the possible relationship between TCMC and hypertension. Retrospective evaluation and observation were performed using the STROBE guidelines checklist. A large community-based cross-sectional study was conducted between 2009 and 2013 in Changsha, China. TCMC was assessed using a questionnaire that included 68 items. TCMC distributions and the associations of different TCMCs with hypertension risk were analyzed. In total, 144,439 subjects underwent evaluations of TCMC and blood pressure (BP). There were significant differences in the hypertension prevalence among the various TCMC groups (P < .01). An adjusted logistic regression model indicated that those with phlegm wetness, yin deficiency, blood stasis, or qi deficiency were more likely to have hypertension. Analysis of the clinical characteristics related to TCMC indicated that different TCMCs corresponded to different hypertension classifications using Western medicine criteria; for example, phlegm wetness with hypertension was similar to obesity-related hypertension. Our results suggest that phlegm wetness, yin deficiency, blood stasis, and qi deficiency have different effects on the prevalence of hypertension. More attention should be paid to TCMCs associated with susceptibility to hypertension, and corresponding preventive and therapeutic treatments should be developed according to different TCMCs.

The Analysis of Constitutions of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Relation to Cerebral Infarction in a Chinese Sample

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the relationships between the constitutions of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and patients with cerebral infarction (CI) in a Chinese sample.

METHODS

A total of 3748 participants with complete data were available for data analysis. All study subjects underwent complete clinical baseline characteristics' evaluation, including a physical examination and response to a structured, nurse-assisted, self-administrated questionnaire. A population of 2010 neutral participants were used as the control group. Multiple variable regression (MLR) were employed to estimate the relationship between constitutions of TCM and the outcome.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional study was conducted to evaluate the association of body constitution of TCM and CI.

SETTINGS/LOCATION

Communications and healthcare centers in Shanghai.

SUBJECTS

A total of 3748 participants with complete data were available for data analysis.

OUTCOME MEASURES

All study subjects underwent complete clinical baseline characteristics' evaluation, including a physical examination and response to a structured, nurse-assisted, self-administrated questionnaire. A population of 2010 neutral participants were used as the control group. MLR were employed to estimate the relationship between constitutions of TCM and the outcome.

RESULT

The prevalence of CI was 2.84% and 4.66% in neutral participants and yang-deficient participants (p = 0.012), respectively. Univariate analysis demonstrated a positive correlation between yang deficiency and CI. After adjustment for relevant potential confounding factors, the MLR detected significant associations between yang deficiency and CI (odds ratio = 1.44, p = 0.093).

CONCLUSION

A yang-deficient constitution was significantly and independently associated with CI. A higher prevalence of CI was found in yang-deficient participants as compared with neutral participants.