Traditional Chinese medicine syndrome types and tongue manifestations in patients with lung cancer: an analysis of 372 cases

Objective: To investigate the traditional Chinese medicine( TCM) syndrome types and tongue manifestations in patients with lung cancer. Methods: A total of 372 patients with lung cancer were included in the study.The frequencies of qi deficiency,blood deficiency,yin deficiency,yang deficiency,phlegm- dampness,phlegm-heat,heat toxicity,qi stagnation,and blood stasis were determined by TCM syndrome differentiation,and the constituent ratios of syndrome types and the relationship between tongue manifestations and TCM syndrome types were analyzed. Results: The syndromes of qi deficiency,blood deficiency,yin deficiency,yang deficiency,phlegm- dampness,phlegm- heat,heat toxicity,qi stagnation,and blood stasis occurred 1053 times in these cases; blood stasis was the most frequent syndrome,followed by qi deficiency and phlegm syndromes( phlegm- dampness 10. 07% and phlegm- heat 7. 12%),and yang deficiency was the least frequent one( 3. 23%). There were significant differences in tongue nature between the nine TCM syndromes( P 0. 01). Tongue nature varied significantly between each pair of syndromes except between qi deficiency and phlegm- heat,between qi deficiency and qi stagnation,between blood deficiency and yang deficiency,between yin deficiency and heat toxicity,and between phlegm- heat and qi stagnation( P 0. 05). There were significant differences in coating on the tongue between the nine TCM syndromes( P 0. 05). Coating on the tongue varied significantly between each pair of syndromes except between qi deficiency and qi stagnation and between qi deficiency and blood stasis( P 0. 05). Conclusion: TCM syndromes mainly include blood stasis,qi deficiency,phlegm- dampness,and phlegm- heat in patients with lung cancer.Tongue manifestation- syndrome coincidence rate is relatively high in patients with excess syndromes and relatively low in those with deficiency syndromes.