ABSTRACT
Objective To extract the specific symptoms of TCM syndromes of chronic fatigue (CF). Methods Epidemiological cluster sampling method was used in this trial. Totally 782 cases of CF patients were selected from universities,secondary schools,primary schools and hospitals of southern Fujian province. The subjects filled in "Scale of Clinical Symptoms of Chronic Fatigue" to record the clinical data of symptoms,tongue,and pulse for the diagnosis of specific TCM symptoms. The random forest (RF) method was adopted to encode the 95 symptoms extracted from the above-mentioned scale to select the main symptoms of common syndromes of CF and to measure the contribution of symptoms to the syndromes. Results Symptom groups of 4 syndromes of CF were achieved. Spleen deficiency syndrome:abdominal distention after eating or in afternoon,loss of appetite,sallow completion,loose stools,and emaciation; Heart deficiency syndrome:palpitation,chest fullness,thready pulse,insomnia or dream-disturbed sleep,and forgetfulness; Liver stagnation syndrome:hot temper or depression,sighing,bitter taste,dry throat,and string-taut pulse; Qi deficiency syndrome:swollen tongue with toothprints,shortness of breath,abrupt breathing,inactive talking,and spontaneous sweating. When the symptoms were inputted to the models,the model prediction accuracy was 96.13%,94.75%,95.89%,and 94.26% respectively. Conclusion The RF method has a good classification function on the syndromes of CF. Spleen deficiency syndrome,heart deficiency syndrome,liver stagnation syndrome,and qi deficiency syndrome are commonly appeared syndromes,each of them is provided with its own specific symptoms.