[Study on composing prescription laws of treating aplastic anemia by Chinese medicine using applying data mining...

To explore composing prescription laws of treating aplastic anemia (AA) by Chinese medicine (CM).

The literatures on treating AA by CM were recruited from various medical periodicals at home from 1979 to 2009 including China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), VIP information network, and Wangfang data knowledge service platform. The database correlated to CM features was established using the technique of computer data bank. The data mining (DM) technique was applied to analyze drugs sorts, frequency of drug application, and association degree.

Three hundred and eleven pertinent literatures including 677 prescriptions and 254 Chinese herbs (CHs) were screened. There were 69 CHs for invigorating deficiency, 42 for heat clearing, 20 for promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis, 16 for arresting bleeding, and 16 for relieving exterior syndrome, which occupied the top 5. The frequency of drug application of 254 CHs amounted to 7 547, in which the frequency of drug application of Mongolian milkvetch root, Rehmannia root, Suberect spatholobus stem, Hairyvein agrimonia herb, and Chinese thorowax root were 379, 248, 167, 85, and 13 respectively, and they occupied the first place of CHs for invigorating deficiency, heat clearing, promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis, arresting bleeding, and relieving exterior syndrome, respectively. The number of the prescriptions containing 12, 10, and 11 CHs was occupied the top 3. The coverage rate of the prescription including Mongolian milkvetch root and Chinese angelica was 60%, and thus 4 core drugs groups were established covering invigorating qi and enriching the blood, reinforcing Shen and supporting yang, replenishing yin to tonify Shen, tonifying Shen to replenish essence, and invigorating qi and enriching blood respectively. Summarized were six potential composing prescription laws covering invigorating qi and enriching blood, reinforcing Shen and supporting yang, replenishing yin to tonify Shen, strengthening Pi and harmonizing Wei, tonifying the blood and promoting blood circulation, clearing away heat and toxic materials, and removing heat from the blood to stop bleeding.

Applying DM technique, the fundamental core drugs groups consisting of Mongolian milkvetch root and Chinese angelica were discovered. The 4 core drugs groups established were in accordance with the realization of modern CM for the pathomechanism of AA. The 6 composing prescription laws summarized revealed the rules of drug application.