Investigation of TCM Constitution in 138 Patients with Primary Biliary Cholangitis (PBC)

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the distribution and characteristics of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Constitution in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC). Methods: Divide the PBC patients who met the inclusion criteria into 3 groups according to the stage of disease development, including group A (group of basic normal), group B (group of symptom stage) and group C (group of de-compensation stage). Each group collected 46 cases, and every patient done investgations, including blood routine examination, live function test, image ultrasound examination, autoantibody examination and immuno-globulin test, and counted their clinical symptoms and judged all patients’ constitution of TCM. Results: 1) For 138 patients with PBC, the constitution of TCM is characterized by biased constitution, among which constitution of qi stagnation (19.57%) was the most, followed by constitution of qi asthenia (15.94%), constitution of yin asthenia (15.94%) and constitution of damp-heat (14.49%). There was no significant correlation between the type of constitution and the age of onset (P > 0.05). 2) The constitution types of A and B two groups were mainly constitution of qi stagnation, constitution of qi asthenia and constitution of damp-heat, while group C was mainly composed of constitution of blood stasis, constitution of yin asthenia and constitution of yang asthenia. And there was a correlation between the type of constitution and clinical stage (P