ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To explore the characteristics of traditional Chinese medical syndrome (TCM syndrome) of hepatocirrhosis. METHODS: Clinical information from the four diagnosis methods of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and related laboratorial indexes were systematically collected from 223 hepatocirrhosis cases, and the multi-statistical methods including systematic cluster analysis, principal component analysis, stepwise discrimination and variance analysis were made with the software SAS 6.11. RESULTS: Multi-analysis showed that there were 3 categories of syndrome characteristics. Type 1 (134 cases): damp heat, blood stasis, deficiency of liver and spleen Qi; Type 2 (62 cases): deficiency of both Qi and Yin with severe deficiency of Qi, heat with severe dampness, blood stasis; Type 3 (27 cases): deficiency of both Qi and Yin with severe deficiency of Yin, stasis and heat or dampness. Analysis of the changes of the related laboratorial indexes among the three types of syndrome showed that Type 1 mainly manifested asthenia syndrome with sthenia syndrome, and its indexes of AST, ALT, GGT levels were markedly higher than those of Type 2 and Type 3, both of which mainly showed sthenia syndrome with asthenia syndrome, and that Type 3 was in active inflammation, deficiency of both Qi and Yin (deficiency of Yin > deficiency of Qi), and its FN, Alb, FV, FVII, PLT, PCT levels were obviously reduced. CONCLUSION: The multi-statistical methods can reveal the characteristics and regularity of TCM syndrome of hepatocirrhosis, and the 3 categories of syndrome characteristics basically conform to clinical manifestations. The result of TCM syndrome distribution and laboratorial indexes infer that damp heat is the pathological basis of hepatocirrhosis, and the degree of liver function disorder and liver damage may be the pathological basis of deficiency of Yin of both liver and kidney.