Objective To observe the distribution and development rules of Chinese medicine syndromes in human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency sy ndrome（HIV/AIDS） patients.Methods Totally 2237 HIV/AI DS patients from 13 hospitals of 10 major AIDS epidemic regions in China were selected.Chinese medicine synd romes of AIDS were collected and surveyed with the diagnostic information collec tion form and field interviews.The distribution and development rules of Chines e medicine syndromes were analyzed according to the latent variable transfer mod el.Results The main syndromes in AIDS suffering from p aid blood donors were spl een qi deficiency and spleen-kidney yang deficiency.The main syndrome in sexua l transmission of AIDS was liver depression and qi stagnation.The main syndromes in intravenous drug abusers with AIDS were spleen qi deficiency and qi-yin def iciency.Most of HIV infected patients and AIDS patients shifted to qi-yin defic iency and spleen-kidney yang deficiency respectively at the five time points.Fe wer HIV infected patients with syndromes of liver depression and qi stagnation

s pleen qi deficiency and qi-yin deficiency shifted to damp-heat brewing and bin ding syndrome and most HIV infected persons with damp-heat brewing and binding sy ndrome shifted to syndrome of liver depression and qi stagnation or qi-yin defic iency after Chinese medication.Thirty percent of AIDS shifted to qi-yin deficie ncy syndrome after the highly active antiretroviral therapy（HAART）.Thirty to fo rty percent of AIDS shifted to qi-yin deficiency syndrome and ten percent shift ed to spleen-kidney yang deficiency syndrome after integrative medicine therapy. Conclusion The main Chinese medicine syndrome in HIV i nfected persons and AIDS p atients is spleen qi deficiency and spleen-kidney yang deficiency respectively. The progress of Chinese medicine syndrome development is qi deficiency

qi defic iency with dampness

yin deficiency with fire heat

qi-yin deficiency and yang deficiency.