| Objective:"ShangHan Lun"(Treatise on Exogenous Febrile Disease)was written in East Han Dynasty.It has not been forgotten despite the baptism of almost two millennia,instead it has become a canon of traditional Chinese medicine and a mandatory study of all physicians because of its vital importance in the development of Chinese medicine.The author Zhang Zhongjing used the theory of six meridians as the building block,combined theories and thoughts of various Chinese medical doctrines and clinic experience of ancient physicians to complete and enrich the system of syndrome differentiation of six meridians,as well as laid down foundation of medical treatment according to the differentiation.It is of great value and relevance to Chinese medicine practitioners because it is a practical and comprehensive guidebook which introduced a systematic diagnostic approach,documented the diseases and its pathogenic factors,and includes herbal formulae and its usage based on different diagnosis.Notwithstanding the remarkable contribution and the brilliant achievement of “ShangHan Lun”,the study of this seminal classic however is limited by the availability of good commentary to elaborate its ideals effectively.Unfortunately this has become more and more challenging due to the elapse of time and the valuable clinical experience and guidance fade as those veteran physicians passed away.Some experienced physicians believe the existence of Chinese medicine is subjected to its efficacy and there are rooms for Chinese medicine to exist as long as there are diseases.In addition to the solid foundation built by the classical theories,the revitalization of Chinese medicine also relies on combination between old and new thoughts,and integration with western medicine to usher a new era for Chinese medicine.Professor Li Saimei has devoted her career life to research in febrile diseases and study of “ShangHan Lun”.She has put into practice the six meridian syndrome differentiation and applied the corresponding formulae in a lot of difficult clinical cases.The significant curative impact and positive outcomes have attained loud applause and admiration from her patients and students.With Professor Lee’s guidance,this study focuses on one of the difficult cases,autism.Based on the multi-level complex concept network and formal concept analysis to generate the partial ordered structure diagram,it tried to establish the relevance and applicability of Shang Han Lun on autism.As mentioned above,one of the objectives of this study is to establish the relevance and effectiveness of prescriptions in the classical text to modern practice of Chinese medicine by analyzing the diagnosis,prescription and dose effect of historical medical records at different eras.Another objective is to explore the potential relationship between autism and six meridians by studying the characteristics of each meridian.Method:The partial ordered structure diagram is a knowledge discovery method proposed by Professor Hongwen from the Yanshan University Biomedical Engineering Institute.It is a mathematical research model based on Formal Concept Analysis.The Objects are analyze mainly on both their common and unique attributes and presented in the partial ordered structure diagram which enables visualized study of the compatibility rules for the objects analyzed.This study collected 210 medical cases recorded by both ancient and modern Chinese medicine physicians and analyzed these cases through partial ordered structure diagram.Two Excel spreadsheets were prepared,one for Patient-Symptoms and another one for Patient-Prescriptions.Both spreadsheets used the patients’ name as the object and their symptoms and corresponding prescriptions as the respective attribute.These formed the basis of data analysis and the raw data after further fine-tuning were subsequently inputted into MATLAB program in a predefined format to generate the partial ordered structure diagrams.By analyzing the symptoms and frequency of the displayed symptoms,the commonalities between autism and febrile diseases as well as the unique characteristics of autism are investigated to identify the corresponding progression of autism along the six meridians.The research further investigated the usage of prescriptions and studied its application and efficacy on autism-like symptoms across different centuries in order to demonstrate that these prescriptions are common and effective on autism as long as the diagnosis and progression of the illness are correctly identified through its displayed signs and symptoms along the six meridians.The partial ordered structure diagram also enables the study of linkage between attributes that are not directly associated with each others.In this research,it converted and presented the raw data of symptoms and prescriptions into a meaningful and easy-to-read way to enable discovery of new knowledge and facilitate future researches.Results:Among the 210 cases analyzed,there are 66 symptoms and among which 36 symptoms are frequent symptoms that appeared in almost 90% of the studied cases.The characteristics of these symptoms reveal that liver,heart,spleen and kidneys are closely associated with congenital deficiency.This association stands out in the displayed symptoms in liver meridian and heart meridian.It is found that the deficiency in smooth flow of emotion and Qi managed by liver meridian,and mental health and language ability managed by heart meridian are also symptoms that usually found in autism.In the 210 cases,physicians had used 204 types of herb in total and the most commonly used herbs are Poria(Fu Ling),Radix Paeoniae Alba(Bai Shao)and Polygala Tenuifolia(Yuan Zhi).74% of these herbs are herbs that help sedation and memory improvement,40% are herbs that help in boosting up immune system,and 21% are herbs that enhance intellectual ability and memory performance.The study further found out that these herbs are included in all prescriptions for febrile disease which evidenced the compatibility between the treatment for febrile diseases and autism.Conclusion:The analysis shows that the six meridians are connected with different inner organs and the inner organs run the human body;the diagnosis are based on the syndromes which in turns tie with six meridians.This illustrated the feasibility of approaching autism by the six meridians method as long as there is a clear understanding of its pathological factors and matches the syndromes with the right prescriptions.Xu Ling Tien,an ancient famous doctor,believed that diseases are ever-changing and each formula has a definite therapeutic purpose,hence,the healing of the illness attributes to application of the right formula and adjustment of the formula in accordance with the syndrome differentiation.It has been a big challenge to extract the relevant information and conduct research on the vast array of data available in the massive clinical medical records in Chinese medicine.However,the partial ordered structure diagram generates a visual composite data map,through which it proves the usage of six meridian syndrome differentiation and the classic prescriptions could be broadened to other illnesses. |
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