Study on Yang-Xu Using Body Constitution Questionnaire and Blood Variables in Healthy Volunteers.

Hong-Jhang Chen,Fang-Pey Chen,Yii-Jeng Lin,Pei-Chen Wu,Yun-Lian Lin,Wei-Hsiang Hsu,Wan-Chung Hu,Trong-Neng Wu

doi:10.1155/2016/9437382

Abstract

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formulates treatment according to body constitution (BC) differentiation. Different constitutions have specific metabolic characteristics and different susceptibility to certain diseases. This study aimed to assess the Yang-Xu constitution using a body constitution questionnaire (BCQ) and clinical blood variables. A BCQ was employed to assess the clinical manifestation of Yang-Xu. The logistic regression model was conducted to explore the relationship between BC scores and biomarkers. Leave-one-out cross-validation (LOOCV) and K-fold cross-validation were performed to evaluate the accuracy of a predictive model in practice. Decision trees (DTs) were conducted to determine the possible relationships between blood biomarkers and BC scores. According to the BCQ analysis, 49% participants without any BC were classified as healthy subjects. Among them, 130 samples were selected for further analysis and divided into two groups. One group comprised healthy subjects without any BC (68%), while subjects of the other group, named as the sub-healthy group, had three BCs (32%). Six biomarkers, CRE, TSH, HB, MONO, RBC, and LH, were found to have the greatest impact on BCQ outcomes in Yang-Xu subjects. This study indicated significant biochemical differences in Yang-Xu subjects, which may provide a connection between blood variables and the Yang-Xu BC.

Highlights

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formulates treatment under the guidance of the holistic concept according to constitution differentiation (Bian Zheng Lun Zhi; Zheng classification) [1]
This study evaluated the body constitution questionnaire (BCQ) using the parameters in 26 clinical blood variables from healthy volunteers and established the connection between Yang-Xu and BCQ using these blood clinical variables
A total of 192 healthy subjects volunteered to participate in this study

Summary

Introduction

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formulates treatment under the guidance of the holistic concept according to constitution differentiation (Bian Zheng Lun Zhi; Zheng classification) [1]. Treatment for the same patient can vary over time while the same disease in different patients can be treated differently. Zheng classification in TCM adopts a personalized approach to treatment of diseases. Zheng diagnosis is the key process to distinguish a person in a state of sub-health, subdisease, or predisease which is different from the “normal” situation and to differentiate one disease from another as well as the choice of the methods for the treatment [2,3,4]. Constitution differentiation in TCM is made by looking, listening and smelling, asking, and touching. People still challenge the fact that the Chinese clinical practice depends only on observation, knowledge, and clinical experiences of Chinese medical doctors (CMD), which lacks scientific basis [5]

Objectives

Methods

Conclusion