[Study of a qualitative diagnostic criterion for basic syndromes of traditional Chinese medicine in patients with primary liver cancer]

Objective To work out a qualitative diagnostic criterion for basic syndromes of traditional Chinese medicine in patients with primary liver cancer. Methods Based on the collection and analysis of related medical literature, clinical investigation, and experts' discussion, a preliminary qualitative diagnostic criterion for basic syndromes of traditional Chinese medicine in patients with primary liver cancer was formulated. Then it was used in clinic to be verified and revised repeatedly till it was improved to be a satisfied formal criterion. Results The basic syndromes listed in the qualitative diagnostic criterion for basic syndromes in patients with primary liver cancer consisted of two parts: excessive syndromes, including the syndromes of stagnation of qi, blood stasis, excess-heat and dampness, and deficient syndromes, including the syndromes of deficiency of qi, deficiency of blood, deficiency of yin and deficiency of yang. Each of the above syndromes could be diagnosed according to specific combination of its corresponding symptoms or signs. The clinical verification results showed that the total matching ratio was 73.92% between the diagnoses made according to the criterion and the diagnoses acquired from the experts' experience. Conclusions The qualitative diagnostic criterion for basic syndromes of traditional Chinese medicine in patients with primary liver cancer is coincident with the experts' clinical practice. However, it needs to be further studied.