Objective

2

To analyse the clinical characteristics of different traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） syndromes in patients with heart failure based on information from electronic medical record.

Methods

2

A cross-sectional study was conducted to collect clinical data of all inpatients with heart failure in the Department of Cardiology， Affiliated Hospital of Liaoning University of Traditional Chinese Medicine from January 1， 2019 to December 31， 2020. A database of clinical TCM data was established to explore the characteristics of clinical data of basic information， syndromes and syndrome element types， and biochemical indexes. The distribution of TCM syndromes and syndrome elements in heart failure patients were also analysed， and the basic information and biochemical indexes of the patients with top 7 different TCM syndrome types were compared.

Results

2

A total of 1676 inpatients with heart fai-lure were included. The top 7 TCM syndromes of heart failure were syndrome of phlegm turbidity and blood stasis （477 cases， 28.46%）， syndrome of

qi

deficiency and blood stasis （439 cases， 26.19%）， syndrome of

qi

deficiency and blood stasis with water retention （274 cases， 16.35%）， syndrome of

yang

deficiency with water retention （145 cases， 8.65%）， syndrome of

qi

and

yin

deficiency （104 cases， 6.21%）， syndrome of

qi

and

yin

deficiency with blood stasis （80 cases， 4.77%）， syndrome of heart

yang

deficiency （59 cases， 3.52%）. Among the 1676 patients， 6 syndrome elements accounted for more than 5%. Blood stasis accounted for the highest proportion of TCM syndrome element type （1292 cases， 77.09%）， followed by

qi

deficiency （919 cases， 54.83%）， phlegm （498 cases， 29.71%）， water retention （434 cases， 25.89%），

yang

deficiency （215 cases， 12.82%） and

yin

deficiency （191 cases， 11.40%）. Among the 1676 patients， 1308 cases of acute heart failure mainly showed syndrome of phlegm turbidity and blood stasis （386 cases， 29.51%）， and 368 of chronic heart fai-lure mainly showed syndrome of

qi

deficiency and blood stasis （118 cases， 32.07%）. Patients with syndrome of phlegm turbidity and blood stasis had the shortest disease duration of 0.3 months， while those with syndrome of heart

yang

deficiency had the longest disease duration of 15 months. The proportion of syndrome of phlegm turbidity and blood stasis was the highest in patients with heart failure combined with coronary artery disease， the proportion of syndrome of

qi

deficiency and blood stasis with water retention was the highest in patients with heart failure combined with atrial fibrillation， and the proportion of patients with syndrome of

qi

deficiency and blood stasis with water retention and syndrome of

yang

deficiency with water retention in those applying diuretics during the hospital stay was the highest with more than 86%. The different 7 TCM syndromes showed statistically difference in patients with complications including coronary artery disease， old myocardial infarction， atrial fibrillation， pre and post-admission medication usage including intravenous vasodilators， cardiac stimulants， diuretics， and level of blood chloride， blood urea， blood creatinine， blood bicarbonate， blood albumin， and blood total bilirubin （

P

＜0.05）.

Conclusion

2

The most common TCM syndromes in patients with heart failure are syndrome of phlegm turbidity and blood stasis and syndrome of

qi

deficiency and blood stasis. Different TCM syndromes have different characteristics in gender， disease complications， medication before and after admission， and blood indexes.