Analysis of TCM syndromes and syndrome elements distribution characteristics of male infertility based on TCM literature

[Objective] To analyses and summarize the TCM syndromes and syndrome elements distribution characteristics of male infertility. [Methods] CNKI database was searched to obtain the literatures concerning TCM syndrome of male infertility from 2002 to 2012.Then, the literature database was established and analyzed by Epidata 2.0 statistical software to summarize the TCM syndromes and syndrome elements distribution characteristics. [Results] The 268 literatures were recruited and 72 syndrome types were involved with 431 total frequency. The syndrome type with frequency over 2% were as follows: deficiency of kidney yang, deficiency of kidney essence, deficiency of kidney yin, deficiency of kidney, damp-heat diffusing down, deficiency of both spleen and kidney, deficiency of yin, deficiency of kidney qi, yang deficiency of both spleen and kidney, qi stagnation and blood stasis, deficiency of qi and blood, phlegm-damp retention,blood stasis, deficiency of liver and kidney. The 34 syndrome elements were obtained based on the analysis of 72 syndromes. In which,there are 14 disease location elements with total frequency of 391 and 20 disease nature elements with total frequency of 507. The syndrome factors with frequency over 2% were as follows: kidney, spleen, liver, lower-jiao, deficiency of yang, deficiency, deficiency of yin,deficiency of essence, blood stasis, damp-heat, deficiency of qi, qi stagnation, deficiency of blood. [Conclusions] Although the syndrome distribution in male infertility had been reported disorderly and inconsistently in male infertility. The syndrome factors extracted from the synsromes are relatively fewer. The main disease location elements are kidney, spleen, liver and lower-jiao and disease nature elements are deficiency of yang, deficiency of yin and deficiency of essence. While blood stasis and damp-heat or coexsistence of deficiency and excess are quite often.