ABSTRACT
Background: One of the principles of Persian medicine (PM) is the individualized approach that is presented with the concept of Mizaj. In this viewpoint, on the whole body, Mizaj is determined for every person based on 10 criteria, which is a result of the Mizaj of the main organs, including the brain, liver, and heart. There is no standard diagnostic tool for Mizaj assessment yet. The purpose of this study is to explain the method of Mizaj assessment and data analysis in the elderly in one of the biggest health and aging projects in Iran. The second phase of the Amirkola health and aging project (AHAP) evaluated more than 1,700 clinical and laboratory examinations of 2135 elderly people. Methods: In this study, a novel Mizaj assessment method in two phases is presented. In the first phase, 1541 elderly were assessed by a PM expert and typical diagnoses (the high confidence of expert's proficiency) were determined. At the second phase, an expert panel including 5 PM experts evaluated the cases. The data of the elderly whose Mizaj agreed in the expert panel was used to assess its correlation with Mizaj. Also, the Mizaj of the main organs of these cases was evaluated this way. Conclusion: In the lack of valid and reliable questionnaires to assess the personalized viewpoint of PM, a new expert-based method has been introduced that can be used in similar studies. The result of the Mizaj assessment in this way will be used to obtain objective values for the Mizaj assessment.
ABSTRACT
Objectives: Developing a new medicine is a costly and time-consuming process. This study presents a novel method to collate a new materia medica from previously documented traditional Persian medicine (TPM) references. A well-documented materia medica will facilitate a quick and easy process to find traditional medicine for specific symptoms or diseases. Materials and methods: A nine-step algorithm is proposed to collate a new materia medica by searching and matching descriptions and references stated in various traditional Persian literature: (1) finding the equivalent of traditional description of symptoms or diseases; (2) determining the keywords to search in the references of TPM, including The Canon of Medicine (Book by Avicenna); (3) determining the best references of TPM for the aim of the study; (4) weighing up the references (a) based on the prominence of the author's prominence (b) determining whether the references are the author's own clinical findings or has citation from other scholars been used, (c) the popularity of the book that the references feature in, among other later scholars of TPM, the geographical and historical span across which the book has been distributed; (5) searching the references using keywords of symptoms or diseases; (6) finding the synonyms of terminologies in the various materia medicas and categorizing the findings; (7) revision (of references found) to ensure that nothing is neglected; (8) scoring the findings based on the defined criteria; (9) prioritization: sorting the materia medica based on the total scores. Some important economic, cultural or historical factors cannot be included in the main process of prioritization during the initial searching of the TPM materia medica. Therefore, it is necessary to take these factors into account after discovering the medicine and before using in practice to ascertain that they are a good match of a specific treatment, disease or symptom. Conclusion: A process to compile a new materia medica has been proposed which will enable the quick and easy selection of herbal treatments for various signs and symptoms of illnesses.