The Pattern Identification of Rheumatoid Arthritis in Traditional Chinese Medicine

• Main Authors: Lun-chien Lo, 羅綸謙
• Other Authors: Hen-hong Chang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2001
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/87461704552854548840

博士 === 中國醫藥學院 === 中國醫學研究所 === 89 === Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic autoimmune disease of unknown etiology with chronic inflammation in multiple joints. According to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), it is in the category of “Bi” syndromes. Its pattern is usually a combination of vacuity and repletion, cold and heat, or phlegm and blood stasis. The classification of the clinical patterns of RA is varied, thus, it is difficult to make an objective and standardized treatment protocol. We recruited 60 RA patients to undergo pattern identification according to TCM. We designed parameters for cold and heat, and vacuity and repletion using a questionnaire, and analyzed the data using a multi-dimension scale (MDS). The results revealed that it was difficult to show a trend of distribution of heat, cold, vacuity and repletion for the whole body and local joints. Thus, we separated the whole body and local joints into two parts. The results marked trends in the cold-heat pattern of the whole body and the vacuity-repletion pattern of local joints. The newly developed criteria combined with using a multi-dimension scale may enable practitioners to quantify pattern identification mentioned above and may be useful in evaluating the therapeutic effects of RA using TCM. Seventy nine RA patients fulfill the criteria were recruited via rheumatology out- patient clinic and were examined by experienced physician, a TCM pattern- identification coding system was applied to generated codes for different etiology, location, mechanism and consequence of RA, the data set was managed by cluster analysis. Our study population shows four predominant subgroups, i.e., vacuity, dampness-heat, yin-vacuity with heat and Qi-yin vacuity with dampness-heat. This study provides objective parameters for rheumatoid arthritis in Traditional Chinese Medicine.