Quantified diagnositic standard for large intestinal cancer of spleen qi deficiency syndrome / 中西医结合学报

ABSTRACT

Objective: To set a quantified diagnostic standard for large intestinal cancer of spleen qi deficiency syndrome. Methods: The spleen qi deficiency syndrome was identified by experts on the basis of clinical epidemiological investigation of 311 patients suffering from large intestinal cancer. Corresponding points were assigned to the correlative factors (traditional Chinese medicine symptoms) on the basis of symptom differences between spleen qi deficiency syndrome and non-spleen-qi-deficiency syndrome. The best threshold was determined by receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) according to syndrome differentiation from expert team, and the quantified diagnostic standard was established. The syndrome identification from the expert team which was regarded as golden standard was tested retrospectively. Results: All the traditional Chinese medicine symptoms possibly related to spleen qi deficiency syndrome were analyzed based on the opinions of experts, and 28 symptoms were confirmed as candidate correlative factors. The occurrence of 11 symptoms between spleen qi deficiency syndrome and non-spleen-qi-deficiency syndrome showed statistical differences by means of crosstabs analysis (P<0.05). The 11 symptoms were filtered by logistic regression analysis, and tiredness, fatigue, loose stool, and poor appetite were finally determined as the symptoms relative to large intestinal cancer. These four symptoms were analyzed with conditional probability conversion and endowed with 16, 11, 4 and 8 points respectively. The diagnostic standard of spleen qi deficiency syndrome of large intestinal cancer was over 13 points. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of retrospective examination were all above 80%, and its positive likelihood ratio was 9.89. Conclusion: The quantified diagnostic standard for spleen qi deficiency syndrome of large intestinal cancer is in accordance with clinical characteristics of large intestine cancer and the characteristics of TCM syndrome diagnosis.