ABSTRACT
Objective:To explore the syndrome distribution of cough cases in ancient Chinese medical books. Method:A total of 9 323 cough cases in the database of lung diseases in ancient Chinese medical books were extracted. Lantern 5.0 was used to construct the latent structure model for the 100 manifest variables based on the first 50 symptoms and 50 Chinese herbal medicines， and different latent nodes were interpreted. The syndrome differentiation patterns of syndromes with symptoms and Chinese herbal medicine （formula） were quantitatively revealed by the comprehensive clustering weights of latent structure. The correlation of diseases with syndromes was fitted through the binary Logistic regression analysis. Result:There were 204 syndromes involved in 9 323 cough cases with 18 syndromes showing a frequency higher than 100. As demonstrated by the model established on the first 50 symptoms and 50 Chinese herbal medicines， 35 latent variables， 98 latent classes， and 10 comprehensive clustering models were obtained， where <italic>Z</italic>5<italic> </italic>was the highest in the threshold value （6.7）， <italic>Z</italic>6 in the information coverage of productive cough （52%）， and <italic>Z</italic>7 in the score （19）. The binary Logistic regression model fitted the correlation between different disease types and five syndromes， where the dominance ratio of external wind to the syndrome of wind-heat invading lung reaching up to 88.919， those of syndrome of phlegm-heat accumulating in lung to diseased heat and sputum 51.594 and 15.861， and those of the syndrome of phlegm-dampness obstructing lung to dampness， phlegm， and fluid retention 31.415， 34.370， and 4.936， respectively. Conclusion:The newly discovered cough syndromes included lung heat and yin deficiency， external cold and internal fluid retention， weakness of spleen and stomach， and phlegm and blood stasis in lung. In most cases， multiple syndromes were observed clinically， such as syndrome of deficiency of both Qi and Yin in lung combined with yin deficiency in lung and kidney. Since differentiation of traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） syndrome is subjective， the weight can indicate the difference in the contributions of different symptoms to the syndrome， which is of guiding significance for syndrome inference. The latent structure model combined with Logistic regression analysis can solve the problem of quantification in TCM syndrome differentiation and can be used to explore the syndrome distribution of diseases.
ABSTRACT
Objective:To explore cough cases recorded in ancient traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) books based on the Rules of Latent Structure Differentiation. Method:The 9 323 cough cases in the database of ancient TCM books and pulmonary diseases were extracted. At first, Lantern 5.0 software was used to construct the top 120 TCM hidden structure model with the frequency>100. Then, the obtained hidden variables were comprehensively clustered and interpreted. Result:The 46 hidden variables and 114 hidden classes were obtained through the modeling of 120 traditional Chinese medicines. According to the bayesian information measure (BIC) score, the model score was -161 242.92. The model diagram was formed with Y0, Y5, Y7, Y13, Y35 and Y38 as the cores, and Y36, Y38, Y24, Y19 and Y17 involved 4 hidden classes. Ten comprehensive clustering models were summarized according to the hidden structure flow chart, among which the highest score of Z5 external cold and internal decoction syndrome was 8.4, indicating that the result of syndrome differentiation rules of Z5 had a high degree of support, and the highest mutual information degree and information coverage of Pinellia sinensis were 0.31 and 63%. Z2 had a low score for the syndrome of deficiency of lung qi and Yin, which was -2， and Schisandra had the lowest score of -15, indicating that the syndrome differentiation rules of Z2 was less supportive. Forsythia and Notopterygium both had the highest score of Z6 wind-heat attack lung syndrome and Z10 phlegm and blood-stasis pulmonary syndrome, which was 19.1, indicating that these two TCMs had a great contribution to it. According to the test, the common syndromes of cough were cold and dryness attacking the lung, kidney-Yin deficiency, kidney-Yin deficiency of the lung, cold and internal decoction, wind heat invading the lung, liver fire invading the lung, lung heat burning, phlegm-dampness blocking the lung, phlegm-stasis blocking the lung. The newly discovered cough syndromes were external cold and internal rheum syndrome and phlegm-stasis blocking the lung syndrome. Conclusion:Based on the syndrome differentiation rules of hidden structure, the improved classification of cough syndromes provides ideas for the demonstration of tacit knowledge of TCM and methodological reference for the improvement of syndromes of other diseases, and is conducive to the development of valuable new prescriptions.