Objective

2

To explore the distribution rules and basic characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） syndromes of cough variant asthma （CVA）， thereby providing evidence for clinical syndrome differentiation and syndrome standardization.

Methods

2

The databases including CNKI， Wanfang， VIP and SinoMed were searched for studies involving CVA related syndromes or symptoms from the inception dates till September 26th， 2020. The data of the included studies were extracted to established the database， and SPSS 25.0 software was used for descriptive analysis. SPSS Modeler 14.1 software was used to analyze the association rules of syndrome elements through Apriori algorithm. Cytoscape 3.7.2 software was used to construct the network diagram of associations between syndrome elements. Lantern 5.0 software was used to analyze the latent structure of symptoms through LTM-EAST algorithm.

Results

2

Totally， 577 studies were included， involving 29 basic syndromes， 19 syndrome elements and 117 symptoms. The basic syndromes with ratio ≥5.0% were lung

qi

deficiency syndrome， lung

yin

deficiency syndrome， pathogenic wind invading the lung syndrome， wind-cold syndrome， phlegm-heat syndrome， and phlegm-dampness syndrome. Seven strong association rules were obtained， deducing five basic syndromes including phlegm-heat syndrome， pathogenic heat obstructing the lung syndrome， pathogenic wind invading the lung syndrome， wind-heat syndrome， and wind-cold syndrome. The analysis of the latent structure regarding the symptoms with frequency ＞3 identified 26 latent variables and 52 latent categories.By performing comprehensive clustering analysis of the 25 latent variables （latent variable Y4 was excluded as it can be separately listed as blood stasis syndrome） and referring to the latent variable Y4， 10 basic syndromes were inferred which were lung

qi

deficiency syndrome， lung

yin

deficiency syndrome， kidney

yang

deficiency syndrome， wind-cold syndrome， pathogenic wind invading the lung syndrome， wind-heat syndrome， phlegm-dampness syndrome， phlegm-heat syndrome， intense liver fire syndrome， and blood stasis syndrome. Based on the above results， seven common basic syndromes were finalized such as lung

qi

deficiency syndrome， lung

yin

deficiency syndrome， and pathogenic wind invading the lung syndrome.

Conclusion

2

The location of CVA is mainly in the lung， and the pathogenesis is mainly involved with wind， phlegm and heat. The basic syndromes include lung

qi

deficiency syndrome， lung

yin

deficiency syndrome， pathogenic wind invading the lung syndrome， wind-cold syndrome， wind-heat syndrome， phlegm-dampness syndrome， and phlegm-heat syndrome， and each syndrome have certain symptom features.