Published online Sep 15, 1996. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v2.i3.141
Revised: July 29, 1996
Accepted: August 14, 1996
Published online: September 15, 1996
AIM: To study the relationship between the modern clinical and pathohistological classification and the traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Syndrome-typing of chronic ulcerative colitis (CUC).
METHODS: In total, 452 patients with CUC were classified according to the standards of the TCM Syndrome-typing set up by the Conference of the Combination of the Chinese-Western Medicine on Digestive Diseases in Linfen. The relevant changes between both classifications were analyzed and compared through the colonofiberscopic and pathohistological examination.
RESULTS: The type of retention of interior damp-heat is more commonly seen at the initial onset of disease (P < 0.01). No significant differences among other TCM Syndrome-typing groups in patients with persistent disease and with recurrent disease (P > 0.05) were observed. The congestion, edema, reduction of goblet cells and the infiltration of neutrophils are pathologically common to all TCM Syndrome-typing groups. Mucosal ulcers were dominant in damp-heat syndrome while crypt ulcers were dominant in spleen-stomach asthenia and spleen-kidney Yang deficiency (P < 0.01).
CONCLUSION: There appeared to be a certain relationship between the TCM syndrome-typing and pathohistological changes of the colon mucosa of CUC.