Objective: Recently, a new traditional Chinese medicine differentiation theory "Syndrome Element (SE)" has been raised. In this study, the main syndrome element types and their correlations with the results of coronary angiography (CAG) in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) were investigated.
Methods: Epidemiology cross-sectional study method was employed and 324 patients with CHD were enrolled, and their syndrome element types as well as the CAG results were analyzed. The correlations among syndrome element types, Gensini score, and the number of abnormal branches were also analyzed based on the distribution characteristics of syndrome element and coronary angiography results in the 324 cases.
Results: According to their occurrence frequency in 324 CHD patients, the top eight major heart syndrome elements were Xin () blood stasis (85.8%), Xin qi deficiency (79.6%), Xin heat blockage (41.1%), Xin phlegm with turbid fluid (38.0%), Xin qi stagnation (24.7%), Xin yang deficiency (18.9%), Xin yin deficiency (17.5%) and Xin cold coagulation (4.4%), respectively, which suggested that Xin blood stasis and Xin qi deficiency were the two most common syndrome elements. Also, as coronary artery Gensini score increased, the changing trend of the syndrome element was "Xin yang deficiency with blood stasis" to "Xin phlegm obstruction with heat blockage" to "Xin yin deficiency with blood stasis" to "Xin qi deficiency with blood stasis" to "Xin cold coagulation with phlegm and turbid fluid, "Xin cold coagulation with blood stasis" to "Xin deficiency of qi, yin and yang". As the number of abnormal branches increased, the syndrome element changing trend was "simultaneous occurrence of cold and heat syndrome" to "Xin qi and yang deficiency with blood stasis" to "Xin retention of phlegm with turbid fluid" to "Xin cold coagulation in the heart meridian", "Xin deficiency of both qi and yin". The result of this study shows that Xin qi deficiency and Xin blood stasis were the major syndrome elements in patients with CHD.
Conclusion: As the severity and extent of coronary artery lesion increased, there were some apparent correlations among syndrome elements, Gensini score and number of abnormal coronary artery branches.