Studying the essence of syndromes (Zheng) in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is a fundamental challenge in basic theoretical research of TCM. The relationship between any given syndrome and biochemical indicators is one of the important aspects of the study. As the indexes selected in each study are specific to a particular Western medical disease diagnosis, and the disease factor is inevitably introduced into the study, the effect of disease factor on the index changes cannot be assessed effectively by traditional data processing methods. This is known as "the same syndrome with different reasons", which has resulted in confusion in TCM research. This study aimed at providing a mathematical tool to address this issue. Based on information theory and the residual-split method, the syndrome information, which was covered in the index variation, was quantitatively calculated in this paper as an independent part of the disease factor. A mathematical model capable of objectively assessing and statistically testing the effect of the syndrome factor on the index changes was established. Applying this model to literature data of studies on the relationship between cyclic nucleotides and yang-deficiency syndrome showed following results. First, the values of yang-deficiency syndrome information were negative for cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) while positive for cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) in all included literature. This indicated that the group of yang-deficiency syndrome was correlated with an obvious trend of reduced cAMP levels and increased cGMP levels. Second, the statistical test results of yang-deficiency syndrome information of the two indexes were different among the literature included. The quality of original data was considered as a possible reason. Third, the significant differences between the yang-deficiency group of a specific disease and the normal group may, in some cases, be caused by a disease factor rather than a syndrome factor. The mathematical model provided a reasonable mathematical tool for the analysis of disease factor and syndrome factor in clinical research of TCM, suggesting that the mathematical model may give rise to innovative ideas and methods in the study of syndromes.

The properties of Chinese materia medica are believed to be the summarization of the effects of biological performance on the various body states. Systemic discussion of chemical-factor elements, body-condition elements, biological-performance elements and their interrelationships is needed for research into the properties of Chinese materia medica. Following the practical characteristics of Chinese medicine, the three-element mathematical model was formed by introducing some mathematical concepts and methods and was used to study the cold or hot property of Chinese medicine, and to investigate the difference in biological performances of the two properties.

Hydrocortisone-induced yang-deficiency animal model has now become the generally accepted model of yang deficiency. However, assessing the most appropriate dose of hydrocortisone is a long-term challenge. For analyzing the modeling dose, the authors have built several kinds of yang-deficiency models induced by hydrocortisone at different doses, and analyzed the experimental data with various mathematical statistical methods. In order to discuss the effects of the modeling dose on the basis of previous research, the authors introduced Ridit analysis.

Objective: The primary aim of this research is to systematically sort out and analyze available documents for yang deficiency syndrome in traditional Chinese medicine, providing innovative ideas and methods for statistical study of yang deficiency syndrome. Methods: Based on the China National Knowledge Internet (CNKI) and Chongqing VIP databases, using "yang deficiency", "deficiency cold", and "patient" as keywords, we searched literature of clinical researches and used "ratio-comparison" and "integration-comparison" to analyze objective data after data preprocessing. Relative importance value of physiological and biochemical parameters were reflected by P value calculated by ratio-comparison or Q value by integration-comparison. Results: With calculation of relative importance values of clinical indicators among various systems, we got the ranking of relative importance of different indexes. Triiodothyronine and urine 17-hydorxycorticosteroid of endocrine system, immunoglobulin A of immune system, and the ratio of cyclic adenosine monophosphate to cyclic guanosine monophosphate, which had great |P| (or |Q|) values and negative P (or Q) values, had a clearly lower level in yang deficiency patients than in the control; hemorheological indicators such as plasma viscosity, whole blood reduced viscosity and erythrocyte electrophoresis time had small |P| (or |Q|) values. These indicators, however, showed less importance for reflecting yang deficiency. Conclusion: Ratio-comparison method and integration-comparison method employed in this study have merits of efficiency and robustness. After detailed compiling and mining of all available data, we have made reasonable advice on the most relevant index of yang deficiency for further study of the essence of this syndrome.

The theory of four properties (Qi) and five tastes (Wei) is the core of the property theory of Chinese materia medica. It is known that Qi and Wei are associated with the pharmacological effects (Xiao) of herbs. This study took records of all 365 Chinese herbs in Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica (Shennong Ben Cao Jing) as the data resource and established a three-dimensional data cube, in the purpose of finding out and analyzing the frequent patterns and valued association rules of Qi, Wei and Xiao based on Apriori algorithm. The results of this study may give rise to innovative ideas and methods in research of traditional Chinese materia medica.

Evidence of the pharmacological activity of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) provides the basis for clinical prescription. Study of the classification of Chinese medicines according to these activities is key to understanding the general active tendencies of medicinal prescriptions, exploring their material basis, investigating their properties and searching for their alternatives. Taking the herbal classic Shennong's Materia Medica Classic (Shennong Bencao Jing) for the data source, this paper studied the classification of Chinese medicines based on semi-supervised incremental clustering algorithm using "micro-cluster" concept in order to investigate the complex similarity among Chinese medicines. The results showed that 253 Chinese medicines were reasonably classified into 14 types, such as invigoration, clearing heat, diuresis, dredging blockages in the channels, treating gynecological conditions and treating strange diseases caused by ghosts. The results also showed that the other 112 Chinese medicines were classified into 112 individual types and the same high similarity to different known types was the main reason for this. The semi-supervised incremental clustering algorithm employed in the study had a high quality and a good development for clustering which is suitable for classification of Chinese medicines. This study illustrated the diversity of Chinese medicines and their complex similarities, thus aiming to provide innovative ideas and methods for related research.

Based on information entropy theory, this study analyzes the experimental indicators of glucocorticoid-induced traditional Chinese medicine yang deficiency or yin deficiency syndrome in animal models, thus laying the foundation of defining and interpreting the model state.

OBJECTIVES: Maternal periconceptional folic acid supplement is by far the most effective primary prevention strategy to reduce the incidence of congenital heart disease (CHD) in offspring. It was revealed that the underlying mechanisms are complex, including a combination of genetic and environmental factors. The purpose of this study is to investigate the association between periconceptional folic acid supplement, the genetic polymorphisms of maternal folic acid receptor 1 gene (FOLR1) and folic acid receptor 2 gene (FOLR2) and the impact of their interaction on the risk of CHD in offspring, and to provide epidemiological evidence for individualized folic acid dosing in hygienic counseling. METHODS: A case-control study on 569 mothers of CHD infants and 652 mothers of health controls was performed. The interesting points were periconceptional folate supplements, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of maternal FOLR1 gene and FOLR2 gene. RESULTS: Mothers who took folate in the periconceptional period were observed a decreased risk of CHD [adjusted odds ratio (aOR)=0.58, 95% CI 0.35 to 0.95]. Our study also found that polymorphisms of maternal FOLR1 gene at rs2071010 (G/A vs G/G: aOR=0.67, 95% CI 0.47 to 0.96) and FOLR2 gene at rs514933 (T/C vs T/T: aOR=0.60, 95% CI 0.43 to 0.84; C/C vs T/T: aOR=0.55, 95% CI 0.33 to 0.90; the dominant model: T/C+ C/C vs T/T: aOR=0.59, 95% CI 0.43 to 0.81; and the addictive model: C/C vs T/C vs T/T: aOR=0.70, 95% CI 0.56 to 0.88) were significantly associated with lower risk of CHD [all P<0.05, false discovery rate P value (FDR_P)<0.1]. Besides, significant interaction between periconceptional folate supplements and rs2071010 G→A (aOR=0.59, 95% CI 0.41-0.86) and rs514933 T→C (aOR=0.52, 95% CI 0.37 to 0.74) on CHD risk were observed (all P<0.05, FDR_P<0.1). CONCLUSIONS Periconceptional folate supplements, polymorphisms of FOLR1 gene and FOLR2 gene and their interactions are significantly associated with risk of CHD. However, more studies in different ethnic populations with a larger sample and prospective designs are required to confirm our findings.
Case-Control Studies ; Dietary Supplements ; Female ; Folate Receptor 1/genetics* ; Folate Receptor 2/genetics* ; Folic Acid/administration & dosage* ; Heart Defects, Congenital/genetics* ; Hospitals ; Humans ; Infant ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide ; Prospective Studies ; Risk Factors

To evaluate whether the in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer (IVF-ET) procedures could increases the risks of adverse pregnancy outcomes (APOs) in offspring.
 Methods: A hospital-based prospective cohort design was conducted, which contained a control group of singleton pregnancies with indicators of subfertility who were still conceived naturally after using simple medical treatment (e.g. minimal medical intervention or ovulation induction), and an exposure group consisted of singleton pregnancies who had a history of infertility and IVF-ET treatment. All factors different between two groups in the univariate analysis were included in the multivariable logistic regression to evaluate the independent effect of IVF-ET procedures themselves on APOs.
 Results: After controlling for confounding factors by using multivariate logistic regression analysis, our results showed that pregnancies after IVF-ET experienced a higher risk of preterm birth (OR=1.28, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.56), low birth weight (OR=1.69, 95% CI 1.27 to 2.31), perinatal mortality (OR=5.33, 95% CI 2.44 to 11.81), and congenital malformations (OR=1.83, 95% CI 1.12 to 2.94).
 Conclusion: The IVF-ET operational factors may increase the risk of APOs.
Cohort Studies ; Embryo Transfer ; statistics & numerical data ; Female ; Fertilization in Vitro ; statistics & numerical data ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Logistic Models ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy Outcome ; Prospective Studies