Traditional Chinese medicine ZHENG identification of bronchial asthma: Clinical investigation of 2500 adult cases

- ZHENG differentiation is a critical concept in TCM, it is especially important to identify the ZHENG patterns of asthma.
- Multiple methods joint have complementary advantages in analyzing the primary and secondary symptoms of each ZHENG of asthma.
- Ten common ZHENG of asthma with each primary and secondary symptoms are easy to follow up and clinical application.

ObjectivesThis study aims to employ more comprehensive approaches to analyze the primary and secondary symptoms of clinical common TCM ZHENG of bronchial asthma according to the clinical investigation of 2500 adult cases.MetthodsPatients met the inclusion criteria were surveyed by associate chief physician or chief physician through the TCM Clinical investigation questionnaire containing general demographic information, signs and symptoms, tongue and pulse conditions. Firstly, absolute frequency, cumulative frequency, Chi-squared test were adopted to reflect the clinical common ZHENG in three asthma stages, then the logistic regression analyses, the frequency methods were combined to distinguish the primary and secondary symptoms of the common ZHENG.ResultsOf the 2500 questionnaires, 2428 valid questionnaires were got, with the number in acute exacerbation stage was 1273, and that 586 in chronic persistent stage, and 569 in clinical remission stage, in which the number of excess syndromes, the deficiency-excess complex syndromes and deficiency syndromes corresponding to the above three stage respectively accounted on 55.7%, 69.97%, and 76.50%. According to the distribution of each ZHENG, ten clinical common ZHENG were distinguished by criteria of the frequency percent value at least 10.0% and cumulative percent value reach to 70% or above. Then based on the OR and frequency value of each symptom, the primary symptoms were tentative identified by OR value ≧ 3 with percent value ≧ 50%, and that of the secondary symptoms were OR value between 1 and 3 with percent value between 25% and 50%.ConclusionsTen common ZHENG of asthma with each primary and secondary symptoms in three stages are identified through the clinical investigation: Exterior cold with interior fluid retention, Phlegm-turbidity obstructing the lung, Phlegm-heat obstructing the lung, Wind-phlegm obstructing the lung, Blood stasis, Qi deficiency of the lung, Qi deficiency of the lung and spleen, Qi deficiency of the lung and kidney, Qi and Yin deficiency of the lung and kidney, Yang deficiency of the lung and kidney.